Out in the Wild
by SWFicWriters
Summary: Sequel to 'Learning Self-Restraint'. Our Jedi team up with another master-padawan team and are sent to the planet of Arkuna. Warning: This story contains spanking scenes of a non-sexual, disciplinary nature and coarse language.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi to all who have followed us and to any new faces! We're glad you found us and hope that you enjoy this as much as we have loved creating it.

Our stories originated as online role-playing and are situated in our alternative Star Wars universe – well, mainly the universe of Episode One, pretending that the tragedy of the Great Jedi Purge never happened. Ahem. There are approximately twenty-five stories pre-written in this series, which focuses on Master Eeth Koth and his padawan learner Raven Trebeck. Although each story can stand alone, it might be a better reading experience to start from the beginning with "Of Padawans Fake and True".

'Out in the Wild', the sequel to 'Learning Self-Restraint', is set two months after Eeth and Raven returned from their mission to Borleias where they were infected with a Neimoidian virus that was almost fatal for Eeth. He has made a full recovery but is now working on regaining his physical fitness. In 'Out in the Wild', our Jedi are teamed up with another master-padawan duo and sent to Arkuna where they will find many challenges.

As everyone who has read and followed our stories ought to know by now, authority and discipline, including corporal punishment, are central themes. To any newcomers, see the aforementioned statement and take it as your only warning. We don't post content warnings at the beginning of each chapter for this. Also, we realise that our master characters, especially Eeth, will at times come across as harsh. However, please keep in mind that this is a fictional universe in which teenagers with extraordinary, potentially lethal abilities are raised to do an incredibly hard, dangerous and responsible job. Their masters feel an obligation to keep them in line in order to protect them and others by various types of discipline, including corporal punishment, i.e., spanking with the hand and different implements. And sometimes, they will need to dispense with the cuddling and tell their charges to do their duty. These are teenagers, after all, not small children. There will always be times to offer comfort and moments of closeness between master and padawan, but they might sometimes have to wait. Plus, masters might have their own issues … which is certainly true for Eeth. His journey with Raven is a learning experience for him as much as for his padawan.

Fortunately for our padawans, our master characters have near-magical healing abilities at their disposal, allowing us to indulge our preference for strict discipline. All of our stories are well-thought-out and contain in-depth character development and progression of the storyline.

If you like our stories (or if you don't like them for reasons other than those of which you have been warned), let us know in a review; we love to hear what you guys think. Okay, let's get this show on the road. Enjoy.

* * *

"Padawan," said Eeth in greeting when Raven entered the room, returning from classes. "It is good to see you. Go wash your hands and sit down for lunch. I have news for you."

It had been nearly two months since their return from the hyperspace communications frequencies conference. Eeth had finally made a full recovery, but he was not yet entirely up to his previous standard of physical fitness. Raven, on the other hand, was more energetic than ever. She had also made a lot of progress in her training and behaved reasonably well these past weeks which had included another Senate assignment during term break – this time without incident. Eeth had therefore decided that it was time for them to embark on another mission. It was designed to allow Raven to expand her skills in an area that Eeth himself had little expertise with; and it would be their first extended mission that would take them away from Coruscant for weeks, at least, if not months.

"Oh, what sort of news?" Raven asked, an eyebrow cocked.

"I will tell you when you have washed your hands and sat down for lunch," said Eeth impassively.

Raven pursed her lips but disappeared to do as asked without argument. 'News.' Now that could be bad or good, thought Raven. Heck, it might even be a mission. Butterflies erupted in her stomach at the thought. A moment later, she skidded across their dining room tiles on socked feet. "Tell me it's something good, like a day at Tree World, or a mission, or the zoo, or, Tree World!" Raven blurted, praying he wasn't about to tell her that she had misread his expression and was in fact about to get her ass handed to her. Raven had been on her best behaviour, but sometimes trouble had a way of finding her.

"Oh, I think it definitely qualifies as good news," Eeth said with a smile, inviting Raven to tuck in. "We are going to leave on a mission. It will be the most extensive mission assigned to us so far and it is also tailored to your special skills. More specifically, to your talent for connecting with animals."

Raven had a rare gift of sensing animals through the Force and being able to influence them. Eeth had known this from the start of her padawanhood but, since it was not a gift he shared, had decided to help her develop her special gift at a later stage, after having ensured that she had a solid command of all the basic skills that would be required of her. That time had come now, he believed.

Raven's spoon paused mid-scoop, she coughed and her brows would have risen into her fringe, had she had one. She stopped herself from asking Eeth if he was for real if only because that sort of rhetorical question was usually met with a literal answer. Instead, Raven stared at him for a moment, her mind racing with possibilities. "Where are we going? What things will I be doing with which animals, and with whom?" It was a lot to ask, but then, Raven had so many questions.

"We will be exploring the wildlife of Arkuna, a hitherto uninhabited Outer Rim planet, in order to make sure it is fit for colonisation," said Eeth. "The most important of our tasks will be to exclude the presence of sentient or near-sentient species, which would impede colonisation. For that purpose, we will be joined by Master Drkai Luthan, who is a specialist in working with animals. She will help you expand your skills in that area. Her padawan, Endal Kanyan, will also join us. I do not know if the two of you have met? He is about your age."

"I know of him, and I've seen him around. We don't hang out in the same circles, though," Raven replied. She was still in a state of semi-shock; this was certainly going to be the longest mission they'd had to date.

"Will I get to do things with you, too? I mean, I hope you aren't going to leave me with Drkai while you and Endal go off and do all the work?"

"First of all, 'Drkai' is Master Luthan to you until she gives you permission to call her otherwise," said Eeth sternly. "Is that clear?"

Raven stiffened slightly at his tone, her spoon lowering and cheeks flushing pink. "Yes, master." Because what else could she say to that?

"Good," said Eeth. "Now, this mission is specifically designed for you to develop your skills to a greater extent than you would be able to at the Temple, with a different master than your own. The Council frequently arranges pairings like these, as no master is equally proficient in all the things a padawan needs to learn. And there is no reason to assume that you would be excluded from the actual work. On the contrary, it will be you and Master Luthan who will do the most important work. There will actually be more teams on the planet than us, but they will be of aquatic species and devote their attention to the vast oceans. Arkuna has only one major landmass, and it will be our task to explore it. It stretches from one of the poles up to the equator and covers different climate zones. We will need to pack clothing and gear that is suitable for all of them. Since we are only leaving a week from now, there will be time for this. Once on Arkuna, we will move around the landmass, investigating the fauna both through observation and through the Force. That part will mostly be yours and Master Luthan's. But of course, all four of us will stay together and I will still have time for your training and schoolwork."

Raven was intrigued, excited and curious. "What's Endal like?" she asked, curious about her peer and the sort of company she was going to be keeping.

"He is quite the scholar, as far as I know," said Eeth. "Very talented in most academic subjects, especially astronomy and astrophysics. His saber skills are apparently not as good as yours, though, and he has no particular talent for working with animals, which is why he will not share in your lessons with Master Luthan. He might help you with your classwork, and in turn, you might be able to help him with his saber skills. I will try to arrange a meeting between the four of us tonight. You might also want to meet Padawan Endal independently and get to know him better, but I will leave that up to you. We will not leave for another week, so we do have time to get to know each other."

"Eesh, I hope he's not a nerd or anything," Raven thought aloud but suspecting that he totally was. Before she realised how bad that probably sounded, however, Eeth gave her a pointed look which had her faking a cough to clear her throat. "I didn't really mean it to sound like that. Not entirely… I'm sure we can help each other. I could arrange to meet with Endal in the padawans' lounge afterwards?" Raven asked, and started picking at her lunch once again.

"You might, if he is free," Eeth agreed. "I will comm Master Luthan after lunch."

Half an hour later, Raven had been coerced into finishing her plate and meetings had been scheduled between Eeth, Drkai and their padawans for seven pm tonight.

* * *

Meanwhile, Padawan Endal Kanyan was slowly making his way to the training room his master had reserved for him, hoping that he could talk her into making it a short session. He had been assigned an exciting astrophysics project and wanted to get to work. Besides, he was pretty sure that there was no way he was ever going to master backflips. Despite his master's efforts to encourage, reassure or, alternatively, rebuke him, he was simply too scared he would lose balance, crash into something and hurt himself. It also seemed like a lot of hard work. Endal was not lazy as such; but there were types of work that he much preferred to others, and exercise was simply something he loathed. Logically, he knew that in order to become a Jedi, he would have to make progress with this aspect of his training. And he did not exactly refuse to do so; it was just that he was not keen on doing any more of it than was strictly necessary. Thankfully, his master, while unwilling to allow him shirking his workout and meditation sessions, never enforced them beyond the point where Endal thought he couldn't stand one minute more of this crap!

"Hi, master," he said cheerfully as he entered the training room right on time and found the Zabrak woman already waiting for him. "Guess what? I got an A+ in my Huttese oral exam."

"An A+! Well done, padawan. I'm proud of you," said Drkai in well-practised Huttese and pulled him into a quick hug. Drkai had taken basic Huttese as a padawan but not to the point of mastery, which was why Endal was encouraged to learn the language; it was best for a team to have different skills to enhance their effectiveness.

Endal grinned. He was used to academic achievements but it had not made him conceited; he was still genuinely thrilled with every good result and glad about his master's approval. He gave her little enough to be proud of in some other areas of his training, he assumed.

"Come on, let's get started," said Drkai. She was still smiling over his good news as she took up a ready stance, gesturing that he do the same. It was going to be a light warm-up, and then into a more rigorous sparring session. She was trying to ease Endal into more confidence in his abilities, although that approach seemed to be slow going so far. In fact, her approach was going to have to change lest he fall too far behind his peers. It had been on her mind a lot lately and she briefly wondered how Endal was going to react to his new orders when they began their mission.

Endal unenthusiastically readied his practice saber. He was a fairly obedient child although more often than not, he did little more than go through the motions when his workouts were concerned. Given the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that he had not been allowed to build his own saber yet. He knew perfectly well that he needed to make more of an effort in order to make some real progress but it was just so much hard work. He hated breaking a sweat! He did follow Drkai's orders, but his moves lacked power, speed and precision – as usual.

When their hour was up, Drkai put a reassuring hand on Endal's shoulder and patted him once, sending him off to shower. She knew he was disappointed in himself, but he would have to trust that she had his measure. And Drkai did; things would improve soon enough.

"Put your things away and come join me," said Drkai, heading to their comm unit to check messages and order them some lunch. Typically, Endal would spend hours in his bedroom studying but today… "I have some news for you."

"Oh?" asked Endal, his curiosity piqued. "Sure. I'll be with you in a second." He hastily tossed his workout clothes in the laundry chute and returned to the common room.

"What is it, master?" he asked as he served himself to a glass of water from their kitchenette.

"We have been chosen to accompany Master Eeth Koth, and his apprentice Raven Trebeck on what could turn out to be quite an extended mission to the planet of Arkuna," replied Drkai, gesturing that he help set the table while they waited for their lunch.

"A mission? That's great!" Endal said enthusiastically. They had only ever been on one mission before, and that had been a conference on Alderaan. Endal had found it quite interesting and his master had been pleased with his performance; he had even taken the minutes on some days. Maybe they had been assigned another conference? he thought. Or negotiations? He did not think the Council would assign them a mission that was actually dangerous, given the fact that he had not built his own lightsaber yet.

"What kind of mission, master?" he asked eagerly, opening the cupboard to get out two plates.

Drkai smiled at his enthusiasm. "Primarily, it is an exploratory mission. We are to search the planet for signs of existing civilisations, near-sentient beings and discover whether or not it is suitable for colonisation by the Republic. Like me, Raven has a particular gift for connecting with animals through the Force; the Council have requested that I work with her to help improve that skill. It ought to be a rather interesting and different mission for us."

"Cool!" said Endal happily. This sounded really exciting. The only cause for apprehension was Master Koth. Endal knew the man by reputation, and according to that reputation, he was the strictest master in the Temple. Well, his padawan seemed to have survived her apprenticeship so far. Endal had seen the slim, blonde girl around. The classes she took were not as advanced as his but she was apparently a really good fighter, or so a friend of his, who had a secret crush on her, had told him. She had one over him there. Endal just hoped they were going to get along!

"Are we going to meet Master Koth and his padawan before we leave?" he asked. "And when are we leaving?" It did not look as if his master was in a hurry, so probably not tonight, he thought.

"We are, tonight in the dining hall, in fact," said Drkai. "We have plenty of time to get to know each other before our mission; we aren't scheduled to leave for another week. The Council often gives us more time to prepare when a mission is without urgency, such as this one. You can't always count on that, though."

* * *

After enduring more homework than Raven thought fair, she and Eeth were making their way towards the dining hall where they were to meet with Drkai and Endal. After that, Eeth and Drkai were going to talk and she and Endal would be free for the evening to get to know each other. Raven was excited, yet curbing her enthusiasm. "That's them," she said, pointing towards the sandy-haired boy that she recognised as Endal from many nights spent at the padawans' lounge. They had not really met, not really, but most padawans knew who everyone was, even if only superficially.

"Yes, it is," Eeth said.

They exchanged greetings, chose their meals and sat.

Raven, never one to shy away from an opportunity at conversation immediately started talking to Endal about their up and coming mission. She was pleased to discover that although he was a bit of a nerd as far as classwork went, he had a good sense of humour; they were going to get along just fine.

Eeth gave them a moment to get acquainted with each other. Then he asked everyone to listen to him for a moment. He proceeded to outline their mission, the trip and the geographical regions they would need to cover.

"We will be unlikely to find civilisations with highly-developed technologies there," he said in conclusion, "because satellite scans show no evidence of them. There might be a civilization hidden in the oceans, but covering those will be the task of other teams. What we might find, or rather what Master Luthan and my padawan might find, is sentient life at a primitive stage, or possibly semi-sentient animals. We will definitely also have to deal with predators, so we will want to watch out for those. If that happens, you and you–" he pointed at Raven and Endal – "will follow Master Luthan's and my lead and obey your orders without a moment's hesitation. Is that clear?"

"Yes, master," replied Raven in a fashion that implied her response was given by learned rote, and possibly thought about a second afterwards. At the same time, Endal shrugged. "Yeah, sure," he said, not giving the matter a second thought. He had not really had issues with obedience so far.

Drkai nodded once at the dual replies. Endal was a good student; it was rare that she had to actually discipline him over anything, but it had happened on occasion. Raven, on the other hand, struck her as a bit of a loose cannon. Eeth appeared to have her conditioned to respond, which was commendable for a twelve-year-old, yet she did not sense any resentment from Raven. No, that pairing was also well matched, Force-willed, she surmised.

When their group was finished with dinner, Drkai led them back to their quarters where she invited them inside. "Make yourselves at home, I'll get some tea," Drkai offered, ruffling her padawan's hair affectionately as she moved into the kitchen. It wasn't like Eeth or Raven would have trouble finding their way around; the quarters she shared with her padawan were standard and looked like most others assigned to master-padawan teams.

"Thank you for the offer," Eeth said. "I would appreciate some tea. I was wondering, however, whether our padawans would not like to go to the padawans' lounge for a while. We will most likely be discussing practical arrangements during our mission that will not necessarily require their presence." While Eeth did not subscribe to the concept of 'fun,' he had learned a thing or two about team building over the years and thought that it might definitely make their stay on Arkuna more productive if Raven and Endal got along.

Endal grinned. He liked Raven and wanted to get to know her better, and besides, he still considered the Zabrak master a tiny bit scary. "Sure, why not?" he said. "You coming, Raven? I mean, if it's okay with you, master!"

Drkai waved the two apprentices off, the anticipatory and excited expressions on their faces amusing her.

Once they had left, she served Eeth and herself tea, smiling politely when he thanked her for the hospitality. She wanted to ask a favour of him, yet thought that to do so before he'd so much as taken a sip of his tea was impolite. Thus, she allowed him to begin their conversation, curious to know what he had to say.

"What I mainly meant to talk to you about," said Eeth, "is the division of responsibilities during this mission. Due to our mandate, it is clear that you will spend a great deal of time working with Raven and that our main objective, the search for sentient life, will be largely in your hands. I will be happy to take care of mundane tasks such as setting camp and preparing meals while Raven and you do this, and I assume that Endal will help me with this. However, since he is only a twelve-year-old padawan and in need of training, I was wondering whether there is anything more substantial that I might work on with him while you are busy with Raven. I am not meaning to interfere with your training, of course; I am simply looking to make productive use of our time on Arkuna."

Drkai was genuinely surprised at this perceptive question. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask if you would be willing to do me a favour." She leant forward, her hands cupping her tea. "As you say, you and Endal will be spending a lot of time together during this mission. If it is not too much of an imposition, I'd like to ask if you might take over his physical training while we are away. Endal is a good kid and does well in most aspects of his training. However, when it comes to physical training, he struggles to apply himself. I have tried to ease him into this, perhaps for a little longer than I should have for his sake, yet what works well for him elsewhere doesn't appear to be working for him in this aspect. I was considering switching to more serious methods, but then this mission came up and I noticed your name. You are well known for your physical prowess as well as your talent with a lightsaber. I think Endal could benefit greatly from spending some time training with you." Drkai wasn't sure if it was asking too much, but she was serious about helping her padawan improve himself and truly believed that Eeth would be able to help kickstart that.

Now Eeth, in turn, was a little surprised. He was aware, from having looked into Drkai's and Endal's files, that sparring was not Endal's strong suit and that the boy had not built his own saber yet but he had had no idea that this was an actual issue. Nor was he sure how to deal with Drkai's request. With Raven, he was well within his rights to bend her over and swat her if she was lazy or recalcitrant (which practically never happened during lightsaber training!) but with Endal, it was a different matter. He was not quite sure whether Drkai was aware of his usual approach to teaching and whether she would approve it.

"I will gladly be of help," he finally said. "Now… As you might know, I am a fairly strict master and I am quick to enforce compliance with my instructions. At the same time, I am loath to interfere with the way in which other masters raise their padawans. What, exactly, would your expectations be if I worked with Endal on his saber skills?"

"That he improves and benefits from a different teacher and style. From you, I'd imagine that you'd treat him no differently than you do your own students. As I said, Endal is actually quite a good kid, he's just struggling, and so far I haven't found the right brand of motivation to help him get past this. I've been teaching him Soresu; the style does suit him well, but perhaps some time spent learning something different, Ataru for instance, might just generate some interest? So you know, Endal has yet to master several of the moves required for basic Ataru; this might help to motivate him, and if not, well, I'm aware that your teaching style is different from mine. In this case, I believe it might just be what Endal needs to get him past this block. He is capable, very capable."

"If he is capable but still struggling, I assume he is lazy," said Eeth bluntly. "My usual approach, with my own padawan, is very straightforward. If she does not make the kind of effort I expect from her, she is paddled until she does. This has never been the case with her physical training but is quite often an issue with her academic classes. I assume you will have to see what kind of motivation she needs, if any, in the lessons you give her. The question for me is what kind of motivation I should provide Endal with if he needs it. I feel it would only be fair towards him to be clear about this from the outset."

Drkai pondered his first statement. Was Endal lazy? Hmmm. Perhaps in this area, he was. It was not a notion she had thought of as he worked so hard in all other areas. "He is also afraid of failure, I suspect. I have spoken to him about this, yet all the encouragement in the universe did not seem to help him much. This is why I was about to restructure our training, and I will continue to do that. I will admit that your teaching style is harsher than I have been on Endal so far, but that is rather the point; I believe a change in pace will make all the difference for his confidence, amongst other things. As I don't believe you are a maniac," she gave him a very slight smile, "I'm quite confident that he will survive. You have my permission to do whatever you think necessary to help him. It would be greatly appreciated, actually." Drkai was going to be spending a lot of time with Raven on this trip and would not be able to give Endal the one-on-one attention he needed in order to consistently implement her new training strategy. Eeth would be mostly taking over this area even if Endal was not lacking, after all.

"In that case, I will do my best to help Endal improve his skills," said Eeth solemnly. "I value the show of trust that this implies. I would like to schedule a practice session with Endal at some point before our departure in order to assess his potential and the areas he needs to work on most. Conversely, I would like for you to meet my padawan and assess her level of skill. It would be best if we chose an afternoon with no other obligations since I do not like to schedule a fixed amount of time for such purposes."

Drkai gave him a genuine smile. That this mission had shown up as it did was fortuitous for her padawan, to say the least. It was also going to be rewarding working with Raven. "I will replace our usual practice session tomorrow at 4 pm and have Endal meet you instead. I can meet Raven at the same time if it suits," she proposed.

"It does," said Eeth. "I will book a training room and send you the details, and I will send my padawan to meet you here or at a place of your choosing."

He rose from his seat and gave a slight smile. "I will contact you later this week to discuss the choice of vessel and equipment," he said. "I am looking forward to working with you."

"Likewise," replied Drkai, standing and taking his empty cup. She was pleased, yet suspected that Endal might not be overly thrilled by her request of Eeth. Well, it was what it was; Raven needed training in a rare skill that not many Jedi possessed, and Endal needed help in his physical training. It would be an interesting mission.

* * *

In the meantime, Endal and Raven had made their way to the room of one thousand fountains. It had been Raven's suggestion as she wanted to avoid being beleaguered by her friends and focus on getting to know Endal. Besides, the fountains were prettier to look at than a bunch of couches.

"Have you been on a mission like this before?" she asked after some general 'getting to know you' sort of chit-chat.

"No," said Endal. "Just one mission so far, a conference. But then, I've only been a padawan for half a year or so. You?"

"Over a year now," Raven answered sans judgement and sat on some stonework surrounding a large fountain. "I've been on a few missions but nothing that was exactly like this. It doesn't sound like there is a lot of danger, at least, but then, who knows. Crazy things happen on missions." Her expression looked as if she spoke from experience, yet was still excited by the idea nevertheless.

"Do they?" asked Endal with a grin. "What kind of exciting things have happened to you during missions so far?"

"Force, where do I start?" Raven replied, pulling her knees up to sit cross-legged and settling in, ready to tell a tale. "My first mission was to the planet of Fenesteer where we were to attend King Falp af Fustaun's crowning ceremony. It was meant to be purely diplomatic, consisting of little more than standing around in fancy robes, making a lot of small talk and attending banquets. What actually happened was far more interesting." Raven went on to tell Endal about how there had been tension from the old aristocracy, resulting in stampedes and an assassination attempt, both of which she considered out of the ordinary considering it was meant to be a diplomatic mission!

"My second mission," Raven continued without pause, "was to Larivan. Eeth and I were teamed up with his former apprentice, Lakhri, who had already spent two years trying to settle a civil war in the Hevelan system and knew what he was doing. Our job was to locate a runaway bunch of royals who, despite being forced into exile by their planet's new democratic system, were reluctant to leave, and bring them to Coruscant. Eesh, can I just tell you that dealing with royals is a pain in the ass. If you can avoid it, do so." Raven did not elaborate further on that mission as Prince James, although no longer a sore spot for her, had been her first experience with boys, not to mention with death sticks!

Raven held up a finger marking a third point, and pulled her legs in tighter. "This one was to Nar Shaddaa."

"Nar Shaddaa?" Endal asked, flabbergasted. "They'd allow a padawan your age to go to Nar Shaddaa, of all places?"

"I guess," Raven agreed, without divulging more than was proper about that experience. "Our job was a straight-forward one, though; find a Force-sensitive child and return him to the Temple. It was the place that made this one crazy. Firstly everyone looks like they either have something to hide or they want to kill you! We ended up hijacking Nash the Hutt's ship, and can I tell you, if it wasn't for Eeth's extraordinary ability to use the Force, we'd have never made it out of that." Raven smiled at the memory because unlike Eeth, she had not really contemplated the concept of her own mortality. Not yet.

"My last mission was probably the tamest of the lot," Raven said, omitting the reason for this downscale. "We were sent to moderate the hyperspace communications frequencies conference on Borleias. I have to admit that this mission was boring, despite the bit of fun the location offered. Just when we thought it was done and dusted, though, most of the committee were infected with a virus by the delegates from the Trade Federation. Eeth almost died, and I'll tell you, at the time I wished I could have died. It was terrible. He's still not quite right, I swear it." Raven shook her head, yet her expression was more one of awe as opposed to fear.

"Yeah, I heard about that," said Endal. "I think the whole Temple did. Hey, speaking of your master. Is he really as hard-ass as everyone says?" He tried to sound nonchalant as he asked this. It wouldn't do to let on that he found the Zabrak master rather intimidating!

Raven had been expecting that question and thought it best to give a truthful answer. "Yeah, he is. It doesn't take much to tick him off, and he tends to come down on you like a tonne of bricks if you do. He is fair, though, and I tend to get a bit more freedom than some of my friends. Just not where my classwork is concerned. Are you worried about taking this assignment with him?"

Endal shrugged. "Not worried, exactly," he said. "Just wondering. He's bound to be a lot stricter than my master. You're going to take lessons with her, so I guess I'm going to be working with your master while you do."

"I guess, yeah," agreed Raven. "He's not so bad, really. Just do as he says to the best of your ability and it will be okay. OH! And don't be late, he hates late. Trust me, I know."

Endal laughed. "That doesn't sound too hard," he said. He never had trouble being on time.

Raven gave him a smile and asked. "What's your master like, is she strict?"

"Not that strict, no," said Endal. "I mean, she can put her foot down if necessary, like any Jedi master could, I suppose. But mostly, she's sweet. I'm really lucky we found each other."

'I just wish she was better at making me improve my sparring skills,' said a tiny inner voice. 'But then, that would mean a lot of work, so maybe it's not really what I wish… Anyway, it's not her fault, it's mine! I simply suck at being a Jedi.' Of course, he voiced none of these thoughts. Instead, they started talking about classes. It turned out that Endal still had to take hand-to-hand combat and had heard a lot of stories of how scary Master Rool was, so they spent a happy ten minutes exchanging horror stories about the man.

When both apprentices had run out of things to bag Rool over, Raven stood and stretched out her legs; sitting around for too long had never been easy for her.

Endal noticed the saber dangling from her belt. It wasn't a training saber, like his, but the real thing.

"When did you get to build your own saber?" he asked curiously. "You're young to have one."

"Not long after my twelfth birthday," replied Raven, pulling the weapon from her belt and twirling it in her palm once before her grip snapped shut on the hilt. It was a move she had been working on for a while now. It was then that she noticed Endal had not yet completed that padawan rite of passage. Immediately she reattached her saber, not wanting to look like she was showing off or belittling him for not having reached this point yet. "Does Drkai ever say when you might be allowed to construct your own?" she asked, genuinely interested.

Endal grimaced. "No," he said. "To be honest, I suck at anything related to lightsabers. Or to physical training, for that matter. I'm nowhere near where I need to be. Maybe this mission will help, I dunno. Do you think we'll get to fight? Like, predators?"

Raven concealed a wince at hearing her padawan peer profess that he 'sucked', and she wondered why he wasn't on the level. He didn't look like he had any issues. Then again, everyone had their weaknesses, Endal's were just different from hers. His question got her imagination running. "You know, I actually have no idea. I read the mission file and very little is known about Arkuna. That's why they're sending us. It's possible for sure. Who knows what we'll find." Raven looked intrigued about the whole thing nonetheless.

They continued to talk about the possibilities for quite some time until Raven's chrono began beeping. "Time to head back," she said, smiling when Endal nodded. "Hey, Endal I'm really looking forward to this mission, we're gonna have a blast," she assured him as they parted ways at the turbo lift.

Endal grinned at her. "Yep," he said. "This is going to be my first real mission; well, the first really interesting one. I'm totally looking forward to it. See you soon!"

* * *

"Hi, master! I'm back!" he called as he entered their quarters a little while later.

Drkai looked up from where she had been sprawled out on the couch, reading their mission file. "Hi yourself," she replied, setting the datapad aside and stretching out. "Tonight we'll do our evening meditation in the gardens." The gardens, Endal would know, were literally right next door to their quarters; they had gotten lucky in that aspect.

"Alright," said Endal. He went to wash his hands, and waited for his master to pull on her boots before they could leave.

"Did you learn anything interesting from Master Koth?" he asked as they left their quarters. "Is there anything I can do to prepare for the mission?"

"Nothing I would consider interesting, no," said Drkai with a wry smile. "As for any preparation you might make: typically, I'd tell you to read and research because the more you know, the less likely you are to be unprepared. With this sort of research mission, however, we know little and remedying that is indeed our mandate." Drkai led him to a flat, grassy spot beside a fountain and gestured that he sit opposite her. "As you know, I'll be spending a lot of my time training Raven to use her Force ability with animals. This doesn't mean I won't have time for you, but it will be less so than you are used to. Master Koth will be supervising you for the most part. He is a very talented Jedi master, most notably for his lightsaber skills, which is an area in which you have been struggling. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to improve yourself, padawan, and it is why I have asked that Master Koth focus on your physical training while we are on Arkuna."

Endal's eyes widened and he gulped. He had not seen that coming.

"M-master Koth is going to train me?" he stammered although, truth be told, it came out as more of a squeak. His lightsaber skills were the very last thing he wanted the Zabrak Councillor to take an interest in because that was sure as hell going to become intensely embarrassing! Plus, he did not imagine that the man would be particularly tolerant with Endal's reluctance to break a sweat.

"He is an excellent teacher," Drkai said in the way of an answer. She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed, leaning forward to meet his eye. "I would not request this if I thought you incapable."

"But I am!" said Endal, and this was maybe the first time that he actually voiced that idea. "C'mon, master, I can't even do a backflip! Master Koth is probably going to send me back to the creche when he sees how bad I am." Besides, Master Koth was super strict, and Endal was not keen on having his ass busted – but he chose not to voice that thought because he knew what his master would think of that.

"Nonsense. Nothing short of my instruction will have you returned to the creche for such a thing. And It is precisely your lack of progress that has prompted my decision. Had this fortunate opportunity not presented itself to you, our training sessions would have had to change," she said, and it was not without a sense of understanding. Drkai could understand, after all.

Endal pursed his lips. He knew that his master was right. He was annoyed with his own lack of progress and was aware that this could not go on forever. At the same time, he had a suspicion that for him to make progress would involve a lot of sweating and probably some degree of coercion, and he was not at all keen on this. Then again, what could he say, other than "I'm afraid of the evil scary Councillor" or "I'm too lazy to put in the effort"? Both would be ridiculous, and therefore, he said nothing.

Drkai could guess what Endal was feeling, and she sent him a wave of reassurance through their bond, but like it or not, this was how it was going to be. She closed her eyes and entered a meditative trance. "Link with me," she told him through their bond. Although it was relatively new, their bond was a more precise way to project her love, support and belief in him. It was also going to help Endal vent his fears and insecurities about this part of the mission. And there were a lot of those! Endal was usually a fairly optimistic and carefree person who had sailed through his creche days on his intelligence and academic interests. He had gone along with the physical training but without a lot of motivation or skill. The idea that he might not be chosen by a master had occurred to him but it had not scared him to the extent that it seemed to scare most other initiates; there were always other career options for people with a talent in maths, astrophysics, and history, after all. Nevertheless, meeting Drkai and being asked to become her padawan had been exhilarating, and it felt completely right. Whenever they meditated, he was certain beyond any doubt that this was where he belonged and this was the path he was meant to take, even if it might become hard at times. It looked as if those times had finally come, and that scared him. Still, meditating with his master helped, as it usually did. She had his best interests at heart, and she knew what she was doing, he could sense that.

And thus, it was with an air of resigned acceptance that he went to bed that night, deciding to just do his best in his upcoming session with Master Koth and hope that it was going to be good enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Raven groaned, squinting through splayed fingers as Eeth blinded her into alertness. Truth be told, Eeth had woken her at 6 am sharp just about every morning since she had become his apprentice. Today, though, Raven had to practically throw her bottom half off her mattress in order to get herself moving. She knelt on the floor clad in nothing but her underpants, giving him a put-upon look.

"I compel you to allow me more sleep," Raven commanded in her best Sith Lord impersonation, flapping her hand at Eeth for good measure.

"Excuse me?" Eeth asked in an icy voice, fixing her with an irate glare.

"I– uh, never mind…." Raven acquiesced, sighing; she hadn't actually expected him to go away, after all. Thus, the padawan went to her bathroom to get ready for their day, scrubbing at her eyes the entire way. Of course, having an attitude or, in this case, using dry humour this early on in the day was never wise, but today she was overtired. Why? Certainly not because Eeth had suddenly decided to indulge her and allow a later bedtime, Hoth may freeze over before that happened, but because she had woken up during the night and lain there thinking about their up and coming mission instead of asking Eeth for help. In exactly six days they would be leaving for Arkuna, where Drkai Luthan would be teaching her to expand on her ability to connect with animals through the Force. Not only that; Endal, Drkai's apprentice was going to be joining them and they had gotten along so well.

Eeth prepared breakfast while Raven got ready for the day. When she emerged from her bedroom, they meditated and then sat down to eat.

"You will meet Master Luthan this afternoon in place of our workout," Eeth told her. "She wants to get an impression of your level of skill. I might take you to the pools after dinner to give you some exercise."

"Alright," Raven replied, now far more awake thanks to a shower, not to mention Eeth's frosty response to her morning lapse in attitude. She wasn't exactly happy about missing out on their workout, but going to the pools was a treat that most definitely made up for that. She gave him a half-smile and swallowed a bite of toast when a thought occurred to her. "Are you going to meet with Endal while I'm working with Master Luthan?"

"Yes, I am going to meet with Endal," said Eeth. "As a matter of fact, his master asked me to work on his sparring skills with him while she teaches you."

"Oh. Okay," she said, taking another bite of toast so that she didn't have to comment on that because for some reason, hearing that Eeth was going to be working with Endal caused a stab of jealousy. It was very un-Jedi-like. Besides, Endal was nice and she liked him well enough to want Eeth to help him. Whether or not he took those lessons with ease or not remained to be seen.

Endal was going to find the answer to that question later that day.

He arrived at four pm sharp in the practice room Eeth had reserved for them, right on time. He was also looking distinctly wary. That did not particularly surprise Eeth; he knew what kind of a reputation he had.

"Good afternoon, padawan Endal," he said crisply, beckoning the boy towards him. "Before we get started, tuck your shirt in."

"Good aft… yeah… uh?" Endal stammered, looking at Eeth, then at the state of his uniform. Hastily, he tucked in the hem of his undershirt that was hanging loose.

"As your master doubtlessly has told you," said Eeth, "I will be working with you on your lightsaber skills while she trains my padawan."

"Yes, sir," said Endal politely. "I have to warn you, though. I… well, frankly, I suck. I'm probably a hopeless case."

Eeth's eyebrows rose a notch. "If you were a hopeless case," he said pointedly, "nobody in their right mind would have made you a padawan. You are neither physically impaired nor lacking Force awareness. We will see about the rest in a moment. First, though, I would like to explain the terms of this arrangement."

"Alright," Endal said, a little warily.

"Basically," said Eeth, "I want to see your best effort. Always. I will never blame you for having difficulties with mastering certain moves; it is my job to help you resolve them. However, I will very much blame you for lack of commitment. If you do not apply yourself to these lessons, there will be repercussions. Including physical ones. I think it is only fair to inform you of this from the outset. Am I understood?"

Endal's face flushed red in embarrassment at what the Zabrak master was implying. "Yes, sir," he said quietly. He was not at all happy with this announcement but nor did he think there was any point in protesting.

"Good," Eeth said, giving him a small smile. "And now I would like to see who I am dealing with. Show me the most advanced kata you have learned so far."

Endal's face flushed an even brighter red. He had still not progressed beyond the third kata, and even that one was not complete because he could not bring himself to mastering the final backflip.

"Okayyy," he said reluctantly. "But you're gonna be appalled. I have to warn you, I really suck at this."

"I was not asking you for a verbal assessment of your level of skill," Eeth replied, stony-faced. "I was asking you to show me. What are you waiting for?"

Endal gulped and complied. He made a lot more of an effort to focus and to perform the moves with some degree of precision than he usually did for his master, but he knew it was still a performance worthy of an eight-year-old. Not even attempting the final backflip, he came to a halt, his head hanging.

"Look at me," Eeth said quietly.

Endal's head came up obediently.

"Why did you not perform the backflip?" Eeth inquired.

"Because I can't," Endal replied sullenly. "I'm never gonna master that one. I'm just too scared or too stupid, I guess."

Eeth gave him a scrutinising look. He could sense no real, deep-seated fear in the boy, just a rather ordinary reluctance to engage in physical activity that seemed risky. Most Jedi younglings were taught to overcome that fear as initiates; it merely required sufficient determination. No teacher would ever let them come to harm during such exercises, of course.

"Nonsense," Eeth pronounced sternly. "You are not only going to master this backflip, you are going to master it today. You are not going to leave this gym before you are able to perform it. It is as simple as that. Now, take a ready stance."

Endal stared at him in disbelief. "But – I've tried it for weeks and never managed to do it! And… and even if I did manage, it will take ages and I've still got an astrophysics project to work on!" he protested weakly.

Eeth did not appreciate the attempt at backtalk and it showed in the look on his face, which made Endal take an involuntary step backwards.

"Astrophysics are not your priority right now," snapped Eeth. "Mastering this backflip is. Should this training session take as long as to interfere with your homework, I will write to your teachers and excuse you from it. And I do not care for how many months you claim to have tried this. If I tell you that you will master this backflip today, that is exactly what you will do. Period. Now do as I told you and assume a ready stance."

Endal hurried to comply. It soon became obvious to him that Master Koth was serious: he was not going to back off until Endal had mastered the backflip, one way or another. It also became obvious that, just as the man had told him, he had no patience whatsoever with lacklustre efforts. Endal's hope of discouraging him by showing him how dismal his skills really were was thwarted before a minute had passed. After the first half-hearted attempt, he received a stern warning from Eeth along with a few suggestions for improving his performance. When he failed to even make an honest attempt at implementing these suggestions, Eeth told him in no unclear terms that there would be repercussions if this went on.

Endal tried to pull himself together for the next five attempts. By then, he had still not mastered the backflip, and this was taking forever! Consequently, it was with a less than constructive attitude that he approached his next attempt, only to be pulled out of it by the scruff of his neck and to have a very hard swat with a paddle that had appeared from Force-knew-where administered to his bottom.

"Ouch!" he yelped, half out of indignation and half because it had really hurt. "What did you do that for?"

"That," Eeth said, glowering down on him with his arms folded across his chest, paddle still in hand, "was for not applying yourself. I told you I expect your best effort and I meant it. The next time your attention is anywhere but on the flip you are supposed to practice, I will make it two swats. And the time after that, three. Whether you will be able to sit tonight depends entirely on you."

Alright, so that was unambiguous. Endal was not used to this style of teaching but he could see that the man meant business, and like it or not, he could see no way out of this. Nor was he stupid; that swat had hurt fiercely and he did not want more of them. Besides, he did not really think it desirable to antagonise the Jedi he would have to spend at least several weeks with before they even left the planet. So, with an internal sigh, he gave in to the inevitable and really got to work. And when he did so, he found that Eeth was not only a strict teacher, but also a good one: patient, efficient, quick at spotting and correcting mistakes that prevented his student's progress, but not trying to achieve too much at once. Above all, Eeth was determined, and he very strongly projected the fact that he expected the same amount of determination from his student. Somehow that went a ways to helping with Endal's attitude, and he managed to limit his experience with the paddle to one more instance in which he earned two swats for whining.

Two hours later, the unimaginable had happened. It was an exhausted, sweaty and inordinately pleased apprentice who exclaimed: "I think I've got it now! Don't you, Master Eeth?"

He beamed up at the man, the three swats he had received during the session completely forgotten over his accomplishment.

"Yes, I do," Eeth agreed, giving him a tiny smile. "Some of the details still lack the necessary precision, but you have mastered the essentials of the move. This will enable you to move on to the fourth and fifth kata quite soon."

"I know," Endal said happily. "I wouldn't have thought it possible. I honestly didn't think I could do this."

"What nonsense," Eeth said brusquely. "If there is one thing I have no tolerance for, it is a self-defeating attitude. It leads you nowhere. Well, I am glad you have seen for yourself that you can master physical skills if you really apply yourself. There is still a lot to be done, of course. You have far less strength and stamina than a human boy your age should have, and I intend to work on that during our mission. For now, though, you are free to go home and start on your astrophysics project."

"I will," Endal said, grin still firmly in place and deciding to ignore the part about "strength and stamina" for now, as it sounded entirely too foreboding. "Thank you, Master Koth."

He bowed to the man and hurried towards the showers.

A quarter of an hour later, he came barging into his quarters, still visibly excited.

"Master!" he called out. "Master Koth has taught me how to do a backflip! I can do the complete third kata now!"

"That's wonderful, and I'm so very proud of you!" Drkai said with a full smile on her face as she pulled him into a hug. She had expected progress, but certainly not this much progress in only a few hours. Endal responded well to her guidance in most areas. However, it was now proven that her typical approach to the physical aspects of his training was not going to work. Well, she had kind of already known that; Drkai had asked Eeth for this favour for a good reason, after all. "I hope you behaved yourself?" she said, releasing him. "And I hope you are hungry. I've made bwalla stew." Drkai had not been sure how Endal was going to respond to Eeth and had prepared his favourite meal in an effort at boosting his morale, had it taken a turn for the worst.

"Very hungry," Endal replied, giving his master a grateful look. Drkai was always so thoughtful; that was one of the many things he liked about her.

"And I did behave, mostly," he added while pulling off his boots. "Master Eeth gave me a few whacks with his paddle for not paying attention to what I was doing. But it was nothing, really. It actually helped; if he had not made me pull myself together, I would never have mastered that backflip and I'm so glad that I did!"

He thought it was only prudent to reveal that bit of information to his master lest she hear about it from Master Eeth.

It didn't come as any great surprise to Drkai to hear that he had gotten swatted. No, what took Drkai off guard was Endal's easy acceptance of it from Eeth, and over his physical training at that. Endal was typically accepting of correction, physical or otherwise, if he understood that it was deserved. He did tend to make a lot of excuses over his lack of physical ability, though. Well, apparently, he had understood and agreed with Eeth's assessment in this instance. Still, Drkai frowned. "You know I expect you to pay attention, padawan. That expectation applies to anyone teaching you, not just myself," she admonished while gesturing that he take some bowls from the cupboard.

"Yes, I know," said Endal contritely as he proceeded to help set the table. "Sorry, master." It was just, he thought privately, that his master had never actually _forced_ him to pay attention the way Eeth had.

Drkai decided to let it go; Endal knew what she expected of him, and Eeth had dealt with it sufficiently.

While Endal set out bowls, Drkai brought the pot from their stove and set it down on a cork mat, a serving ladle sticking out. When they finally sat to eat, Drkai passed some bread rolls over. "Tuck in," she said.

When they had eaten for a while, she asked, "Did Master Koth assign you any additional work to do?" because if he had, she would need to make time for it in his schedule.

"Not really," said Endal. "He just told me to practice the third kata, including the backflip, every day during my workouts. I figure we'll do that anyway, won't we?"

"Certainly. For one thing, I want to see it," Drkai said with a smile. "For another, there will be more advanced moves in the next kata which you will need to master to progress." Besides, she was interested to see what else Eeth Koth could help him overcome in this area of his training. Yes, asking Eeth to offer another perspective to Endal had most definitely been the right choice, she thought.

* * *

While Drkai and Endal were busy with dinner, Raven had entered their quarters to find Eeth absent, a datapad with instructions left open on the table. It was hardly irregular, and so she went about her duties all the while curious about what was taking Eeth so long with Endal. The session with Drkai had been a real eye-opening experience; it was the first instance Raven had had to meet anyone else with her particular gift, and she was excited to tell Eeth all about it. She was less excited about all the meditations involved; in her opinion, there were already enough things to meditate about in her life.

Eeth arrived about forty-five minutes after his padawan had come home.

"Padawan," he said, hanging his cloak onto the cloak rack. "So you are back already."

"Yes, master," Raven replied, springing up from her spot on the floor and disregarding her homework for now.

Eeth smiled at her and asked, "How was your lesson?"

"It was awesome! The things Master Luthan can do are just amazing. Like, did you know that you can borrow Force energy from a Force-sensitive animal if you create a bond with it! Imagine how powerful you could be? Also, she said that if I work hard, eventually I'll be just as good as her, if not better," Raven said, trying not to let that comment go to her head. She perched herself on the edge of their sofa arm. "There is a lot of meditation, though. Too much, actually. It's just that I already know how to communicate with animals because I've been doing it for as long as I can remember; I need experience, not more meditations."

"Padawan," said Eeth sternly, "if Master Luthan tells you that you need to meditate, then you need to meditate. Period. Is that clear?"

'Mission mode', thought Raven, hopping from her perch to stand. "Yes, master, clear." She forbore to add a salute if only because that was probably pushing it even for her. The corner of her lip did twitch slightly, though.

When this got zero response from Eeth, Raven followed him around their apartment telling him about all the things Drkai was planning to teach her. When she ran out of stuff to say, however, it occurred to her to ask about his lesson. "So, how'd it go with Endal?"

"Quite well," Eeth replied as he started slicing a loaf of bread. "He made some progress, and he seemed quite happy about it. Set the table, please. We will have dinner now and go to the pool later. Are you done with your homework? I will want to look at it before we leave."

Raven smiled a little at hearing Endal had made progress and started pulling things from drawers to set the table. "Not yet," she replied. Her homework was far from finished, yet Raven knew Eeth would check it. Ever since she'd failed maths and been placed in the remedial class, he had checked everything. It grated, but then, she had kinda earned as much. Still, Raven was on a high and not much could dampen her spirits; not even the six days of waiting that she thought would NEVER end!

* * *

Six days later, early in the morning, the two masters and their padawans boarded a large starship that was waiting for them in the Temple hangar. It contained a large amount of provisions, camping and exploration gear and a big speeder shuttle that would be their main means of transport when on the planet. The ship held two cabins, one for each master-padawan team, a galley, a common room and a mostly empty cargo hold that Eeth had rigged up as a training room. The trip was going to take eight days and they were going to need some exercise.

Half an hour later, they had left orbit and entered hyperspace. The four Jedi entered the galley and had breakfast. For now, they had a store of fresh food at their disposal which was going to become increasingly sparse as their trip continued. While they ate, Drkai and Eeth discussed a schedule for their time on the spaceship.

Each day after breakfast, Drkai would work with Raven and Eeth would take Endal to the cargo hold for an extensive workout. Then each master would put in a couple of hours of schoolwork with her or his padawan. After lunch, they would jointly prepare for their mission. Since little was known about Arkuna, the only thing they could do was to study the available satellite pictures and plot a course that would cover all of the planet's landmass. Following that, there would be another hour of sparring or Force work, either between master and padawan or between all four of them together. Before dinner, the padawans would do a couple more hours of schoolwork on their own. The time after dinner would be free.

"Well, that about covers it, I think," Eeth said when he and Drkai had finished outlining that schedule. He looked at both padawans. "Any questions?" he asked.

Raven shook her head. The take-off notwithstanding, it sounded like another work-filled starship journey. Joy… She glanced over at Endal who was shaking his head also. His mind was elsewhere anyway; it was filled with a mixture of excitement and apprehension at the thought of the training session with Master Eeth that was in his immediate future. He had actually made some progress in kata practice with his master and had got started on the fourth kata, but sparring was still an ordeal, and he did not even want to think about working on his "strength and endurance".

"Well," said Eeth, "then let us clear up here and get to work."

"Work, always with the work," commented Raven, a lopsided grin on her face as she went about doing as told.

Shortly after having cleaned up, Raven followed Drkai, somewhat impatiently, to an area in their common room that was relatively open and would give them room to space out a bit.

Drkai gestured that Raven sit on the floor opposite her and placed a large, plastic sealed box between them. It definitely had something crawling around inside it, and Raven's suspicions came to fruition when Drkai opened the lid. "Ugh, no. Really? I hate the crunchy kind," Raven remarked when the lid was lifted to reveal four brightly coloured arachnids on one side of an opaque divider and about twenty cockroaches on the other.

"Crunchy?" Drkai was perplexed.

"Yeah, you know when creepy crawlies are kinda hard-bodied with prickly angular legs, instead of the soft-bodied sort with long, springy legs?"

Drkai just blinked at her, and then she chuckled; this kid was crazy.

"Crunchy or not, this is what we're going to be working with for a few days. These are potentially two mating pairs of an almost extinct species given to the Temple for rehabilitation. So far there has been no luck getting them to breed. We won't be attempting that today. Today, we're going to set the four out and – oh dear," Drkai pulled what looked like a fifth, very skinny and somewhat transparently flaky spider from the container.

"Ugh, yuck." Raven wrinkled her nose as the thing was flapping in between Drkai's fingers. "Did the others eat it?"

"No, not quite. This is an exoskeleton." Upon seeing Raven's blank expression, Drkai elaborated. "It means that one of them has moulted and will not eat. It will make our job harder, but I think you're up to it."

As it turned out, Raven managed to prevent two of the cockroaches from feeling anything. Still, she didn't like this, even though she knew that the spiders had to eat; it felt cruel to feed them the poor defenceless cockroaches.

"This technique is humane if you consider how it is in the wild," said Drkai. She was not at all oblivious to how this must feel to Raven, yet she also knew that the girl needed to harden up. Force knew she did not enjoy doing this either; it was simply something that had to be done.

It was difficult for Raven to sense multiple creatures at once. This was the one weak spot that Drkai had pointed out early on, and she assigned Raven meditations to help with her focus.

"Good job, you did that well," praised Drkai when they were done, moving to sit with Raven who was doing an admirable job at concealing a headache. "With practice, the pain will lessen," she said. She stroked a strand of hair from Raven's forehead and put an arm around her shoulder, encouraging her to guide the last spider back into the container.

Drkai led Raven to a couch and had her sit between her legs while she placed her hands on Raven's head, using the Force to get rid of her headache. "This sort of thing happens frequently when you're learning to focus on more than one creature," she explained. The good thing about that was that Drkai herself knew how to alleviate this sort of headache rather effectively. It was about the only Force-aided healing she wasn't rubbish at.

Raven for her part simply closed her eyes. She was rather talented at Force-aided healing. However, it was hard to heal herself of pain as that pain often hindered her focus. "Thanks. Do you know that my master is pretty awesome at Force-aided healing? He's practically a healer," she boasted, standing and pulling her hair back into a neater ponytail.

"Is that so? Well, I'm impressed," Drkai said with a smile. "I'm also impressed with you. Very well done. You focused and pushed hard. I'm proud of your effort. Keep it up and you'll be running circles around me in no time."

Raven had the prudence to at least attempt an expression of humility, but her smile was determined to shine through. "You think so?" she found herself asking. Raven knew what sort of an answer that would get from Eeth, yet Drkai simply nodded and got to her feet. "Let's go and see if my padawan is still in one piece, shall we?"

Raven smiled a smile that was all teeth and skipped from the room practically beaming. She had done well, very well.

* * *

While Raven and Drkai worked with the spiders, Endal looked at the training room that Eeth had prepared, impressed and just very slightly apprehensive. The man was obviously taking this very seriously. Part of the room was laid out with thick mats. Ropes of varying length were dangling from the ceiling, and there was a number of crates that presumably held training equipment, but could also be used for climbing and jumping. Endal just hoped that Eeth would not require him to do any such climbing and jumping because he absolutely sucked at that.

Eeth, however, did not give him much time to take in his surroundings. He motioned for him to take up a position in the centre of the room, facing his teacher.

"Alright," he said without preamble. "Can we agree that, given your academic record so far, improving your skills with a lightsaber and at your physical training should be your top priority for the time being?"

Endal sighed. "Yes," he admitted. "I know I have been slacking off in these areas and that, like it or not, I will have to pull myself together. I'll try. But I really, really suck at this! I'm not sure how far I will get, even with your help."

Eeth raised his eyebrows. He thought he could detect a pattern here. The boy was flinging his presumed or real shortcomings into Eeth's face in order to lower his expectations. Endal probably hoped that this would earn him sympathy and excuse him from making a real effort. Eeth had no intention of indulging this strategy in the slightest.

"You do not 'suck,'" he snapped. "And you will not just 'try' either. These are nothing more than excuses for laziness, and I will not stand for them. Is that quite clearly understood?" Just for emphasis, he pulled the paddle from his belt and folded his arms across his chest, the implement clearly on display.

Endal's eyes widened. Alright, so that was unambiguous! "Sorry," he said hastily. "I won't just try, I'll do it. After all, I learned the backflip last time, didn't I?"

"You did," said Eeth. "But that does not mean you should harbour any illusions about what improving your physical condition is going to mean. You are not going to spend each and every training session acquiring new skills. In order to succeed, you will have to build up a lot more strength and stamina than you possess now. You will also have to learn to endure hardship and to persevere. As such, while some of our practice sessions might turn out to be satisfying experiences like the one you had last week, others might turn out to be nerve-wracking, exhausting and even painful. I expect you to commit yourself and to give your utmost effort, irrespective of the nature of the work we do. And I think you have a good idea of what to expect in case you do not meet that expectation."

"Yes, sir," Endal said with a sigh. "I think I do."

"Good," said Eeth with a small smile. "In return, I promise you my utmost commitment to helping you improve your skills. And I honour my commitments very strongly. Whenever you feel you are lacking confidence in whether you will be able to succeed, remember that I have full confidence in that ability of yours and that I expect nothing less from you."

"Agreed," Endal replied, returning the smile with a broader one of his own.

He soon lost his smile, however, as he found out what Eeth's idea of a proper workout was; and Eeth was doing an extra thorough job today because he wanted to eradicate all illusions the boy might have about what it meant to really improve his physical condition. Even more importantly, he wanted to demonstrate to Endal that he was capable of enduring much more than he would have thought possible, and at that, he certainly succeeded.

He had the boy running laps at varying speed, forward, backward, and sideward, until Endal's tongue was nearly hanging to the floor. However, each thought of protesting he might have entertained evaporated instantly when he took a look at the Jedi master who had his arm folded across his chest, his paddle conveniently nestled in a crook of his elbow. There was no way he was going to whine or complain and earn himself swats with that implement! So, there really was no other option than to grit his teeth and fight his way through this.

Just when he thought he was close to collapsing, Eeth mercifully let him stop – only to have him start climbing the ropes.

"But Master Eeth!" he groaned before he could stop himself. "If there's anything I suck at, it's rope-climb— OUCH!"

He rubbed his stinging bottom and glared at the Jedi Master who seemed to be able to swing his paddle faster than lightning, HARD.

Completely unperturbed by the glare, Eeth snapped, "I do not remember having asked for your opinion. But let me tell you this. I do not want to hear another word about how you 'suck' at one skill or another. Such statements are no more than an excuse for you to avoid the effort involved in improving yourself, and I will not have any of that. Telling yourself how bad you are at something will only make it worse. If you are unable to climb ropes, it is because you are lacking muscle power. The only way to change that is by building up more muscle power. Feeling sorry for yourself will certainly not help. Any more instances of that self-deprecating attitude, and you will receive much more than one swat. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Endal mumbled, pouting, but obediently making his way to the rope Eeth had indicated. He was not suicidal, after all!

Eeth had him climb ropes until the muscles in his arms were practically screaming and his hands were sore and red from skidding down those ropes with less than perfect control. However, when he complained about that, Eeth just gave his hands a cursory look, made sure that he was not bleeding and told him to go on. Again, this continued until Endal felt about ready to collapse, at which point Eeth relentlessly ordered him to draw his lightsaber, assume a ready stance and start attacking. Endal stared at him in disbelief for a moment, feeling very, very close to tears. However, he had quite clearly understood that the Jedi master had no tolerance for self-pity. Besides, he reminded himself, I want to earn my lightsaber at some point and become a Jedi knight eventually. If this is what I need to do, I will do it. I won't be a cry-baby about it.

He continued this internal monologue while assuming his position. He was panting and soaked in sweat, his arms were aching and his legs felt weak. He knew that any attempt at sparring in his current state would be pathetic. He also knew that anything but his best effort would be likely to earn him swats with that infernal paddle, and he decidedly did not want that. Thus, he drew a deep breath, tried to steady his legs and lunged into an attack with as much determination as he could possibly muster – only to find himself flailing past a Jedi master who had neatly sidestepped him and nearly tripping himself up in the process. At this point, he really felt like screaming, but again, that would have accomplished nothing but earn him swats. There was nothing for it but to grit his teeth and try again. Eeth blocked his attack, but nodded in approval at his perseverance and gave him some useful hints about improving his stance.

The lesson continued in much the same pattern, with Eeth working Endal relentlessly, but rewarding his perseverance and his honest efforts with helpful advice and small signs of approval. Endal was more tired and sore than he had ever been, but he also felt an inexplicable satisfaction at his refusal to give up. At some point, he entirely lost his sense of time and was reduced to running through the moves by instinct, too exhausted and sore to be able to muster any conscious thought; but somehow, his internal mantra was continuing and he was still on his legs, even though they were buckling.

When he finally heard Eeth tell him to sheath his saber and take a shower, it took a while for the words to actually penetrate the mist of pain and exhaustion.

"Alright," he mumbled, clumsily disigniting his saber and managing to attach it to his belt at the third attempt.

"Wait," Eeth said quietly, putting a hand under his chin and raising it with surprisingly gentle fingers.

"You made a big step forward today," he told the boy. "You behaved like a young Jedi, and you have every right to be proud of yourself."

He flashed Endal a brief smile and clapped his back. "And now take your shower," he told him.

* * *

Raven, too, was sent off to shower. She hadn't noticed it at the time, yet while handling Drkai's 'critters,' she had managed to get substrate down the front of her tunic, under her fingernails, up her sleeves and in her hair. On the upside, taking a shower meant that she got to waylay homework, or whatever else was waiting for her after this. Bonus!

"In the galley," said Drkai, sensing Raven's approaching presence.

Raven entered the galley, yanking a brush through her damp tangle of knots, and found Drkai seated at their dining table, skimming through what looked like Endal's classwork. "Looked like'' because whatever level of astrophysics that was, it was way over her head. "He's good at that stuff, isn't he?" Raven gestured to the datapad with her brush, a hint of wistfulness and jealousy in her tone.

"Yes," Drkai answered honestly. She slid the pad aside for a moment and reached out a hand for the brush, and then she gestured that the girl once again sit between her knees. "Not everyone can be good at everything. That isn't an excuse not to do your best, though," she said peacefully.

"I know," Raven sighed. "I hate it, though. Stuff like astrophysics just won't go into my head," she complained and then squinted as Drkai pulled at one of the more stubborn knots. Raven's blonde hair now reached just below her shoulder blades in length, but that meant it tangled a lot more.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you that hating astrophysics won't make it go away," Drkai stated.

"Nope, Eeth tells me that all the time." And Raven's tone was so emphatic that Drkai had to chuckle a little.

At this point, a totally shattered padawan Endal entered the galley. He was stumbling at every second step, sweaty and absolutely exhausted, but he had an insane grin on his face.

"Hi master," he said wearily. "Hi Raven. I guess we're done."

"We are," said Eeth, entering behind him. "And he did well." He glanced at his padawan sitting between Drkai's knees and felt a stab of… wistfulness? Or even envy? Suddenly, he felt as if Raven had never been that close to him. Of course, it had never exactly occurred to him that she ought to be. But seeing her so relaxed and peaceful made him wonder if she had ever been like this with him, and whether his efforts at giving Raven emotional support were adequate. These were thoughts he had not indulged in quite a while. Trying to shake them off as quickly as possible, he asked, "How did your lesson go?"

"There were spiders, lots of spiders," said Raven, her nose wrinkling as she reluctantly removed herself from the comfort of Drkai's ministrations and stretched. She looked over at Endal and gave a whistle of appreciation, but said nothing more.

Drkai stood, handing Raven her brush, and took in Endal's appearance. He was exhausted, yet satisfied with himself which was progress in and of itself. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up," she said, gesturing that he follow her.

"Enough spiders to make you need a shower?" Eeth asked, looking Raven up and down. "Are you suffering from arachnophobia, padawan?" He did not think she would but he thought he had better make sure.

"Arachnophobia? Force, no," chuckled Raven, and then she noticed that he was actually serious. She straightened up a bit. "I'm good… Really. You see, the spiders live in this huge box and it's full of substrate, dirt and other stuff that they like to burrow around in. It gets everywhere." she began animatedly as Drkai led an exhausted Endal from the galley. "It was awesome! Drkai told me that this species is almost extinct and that these are some of the last breeding pairs left. Although they aren't breeding at the moment, nor have any of them eaten each other which is a really good thing," Raven continued rambling on about all the things Drkai had taught her, the work they were doing and how her head had started aching but Drkai had taken that away, her hands gesturing and expression exuberant.

As Eeth listened to Raven talk, the sensation niggling at the back of his mind returned. When had she ever been this enthusiastic about anything he had taught her? She had made progress, yes, and she might even have enjoyed herself, but this? This was in a league of its own. Of course, it might simply be due to the fact that Drkai was teaching her a new skill, a skill that she enjoyed using but had received barely any training in yet, since Eeth could not teach her. And yet…

Pushing these thoughts aside once again, Eeth used the next minuscule break in her monologue to say, "Padawan, I am glad to hear you enjoyed your lesson. It is time for schoolwork now. Please tend to your Basic assignment until lunch. I will be in the cockpit taking care of navigation. If you have any serious problems with your assignment, call me."

"Yes, master," Raven replied, her tone sharper than was typical, and it carried a hint of hurt to it. Regardless, she turned on her heel and went to do as bade. She had been so excited to tell him about the things Drkai had taught her, and he didn't want to hear about them. "Yeah, he was more interested in Endal," thought Raven, the unfamiliar feeling of jealousy surfacing once again as she threw her datapad onto her bed.

Eeth frowned. He failed to see what he had done wrong and therefore had no idea how to rectify it either. As he made his way to the cockpit, he tried to push his feelings of insecurity away once again but it did not quite work.

* * *

In the meanwhile, Endal threw himself onto his bed. He was completely shattered. He also knew that Eeth had told him to take a shower, and given that he was drenched in sweat, that seemed like a sensible instruction, but he felt way too exhausted to remain standing!

Predictably, Drkai had Endal take a shower nonetheless, and when he emerged, she gestured that he lie down on his bed. "Tell me about it?" she asked gently, wanting to hear from him what he and Eeth had gone through while she worked to alleviate the pain in his muscles. Drkai was no healer but she would be able to offer massage, and with the addition of some liniment, it should take away the majority of the boy's pain.

"It was just really, really… intense," murmured Endal. "I felt like I was about ready to collapse less than halfway into the workout. It was actually _painful_ but Eeth wouldn't allow me to stop. So I kept going. Well, he would have paddled me if I hadn't. I think by tomorrow morning, I'll be too sore to get up. I still can't quite figure out how I managed to remain upright until the end. I think at some point, I was just running on auto-pilot. Do you think he ever puts Raven through something like this? She looks like she might break if he does."

Drkai listened intently but had to work to conceal a slight smile at his comments. "Padawan, no master will push a student beyond their limits, Eeth included. We will provide healing if it's needed, and, believe it or not: you will survive this." She pulled his tunic down and placed the jar aside, patting his back gently to signal that he could get up. "You have classwork to deal with now, and then we will have some lunch. I've heard that there is still quite a bit of fresh food left on board." Drkai let her smile come through at that, knowing that her padawan was quite fond of good food.

"Master, you know I'm on top of my work," Endal mumbled, pulling the pillow over his head. "Just let me sleep? Please? I'm tired."

Drkai pulled the pillow off his head just as fast and raised an eyebrow at the petulant expression she got in response. Not wanting to do his classwork was entirely new for Endal, so she knew that his protest had some validity. Still, he was not exactly dying here, not even close. Besides, this wasn't really about Endal's homework. It was about his ability to push through when he thought he couldn't. He needed to work on that, and Drkai knew it. Thus, "Homework now, hop to it," she ordered, and this time her tone was firm and uncompromising.

Endal rolled around and flopped onto his bed. "Master, I'm dyyyyyyiiiinngggg!" he said dramatically. And had to chuckle at his own antics. "Alright, alright," he said with a sigh. "But if you make me do another workout this afternoon, I might just actually die."

It was hard for Drkai not to crack a smile at Endal's melodramatics, but she managed. Just. "Oh, I'm pretty sure you would live. The Order does not take kindly to masters who kill their padawans with too much exercise." At this, her lip did curl up slightly. He was capable of more than he knew, and she was going to be pushing him harder, but in this case she thought he'd had enough for one day.

"Good for me," said Endal tiredly. And he really was tired. But it was not like him to defy his master, let alone over schoolwork, so he rose slowly, wincing slightly at the pain in his muscles, and grabbed his datapad.

* * *

"Have you finished your Basic assignment, padawan?" Eeth asked, entering their room an hour after he had left for the cockpit.

Raven, still unwilling to entirely forgive him for fobbing her off earlier, did not look up from her datapad. "No," she answered a little too sharply. It was unlike her to be so informal with Eeth. However, it was not unlike her to hold a grudge from time to time. Raven had trouble letting things go, and jealousy was something she hadn't really dealt with before.

"Well, then finish it, please," said Eeth, frowning a little at her lack of manners. He wondered what was causing it but decided to let it go.

Raven huffed, grumbling to herself about the dryness of this text and where the author could shove his textbook.

The edges of Eeth's mouth twitched slightly as he overheard her comment. "Poor padawan," he said mildly, pulling out a chair. "You are still not getting out of this. If it makes you feel better, I will keep you company while you finish. I still have a report to write."

Raven looked over her datapad at him as he sat at the desk by the wall. Eeth's rare use of humour had been unexpected, and despite being mad at him, she found her lip curling to match his. Classwork was an unavoidable part of her life. Unfortunately, it also made up the majority of the work she had to do during most spaceship travel. Another entirely put upon sigh escaped; "One day down, another SEVEN to go!" thought Raven.


	3. Chapter 3

It took Raven another twenty-five minutes to finish what was, in her opinion, one of the worst assignments she'd had to date. The datapad flopped to the bed and bounced a couple of times, her head practically doing the same. Thank the Force that was over!

"Are you done?" asked Eeth, looking up from his own datapad. He received a muffled noise that resembled an affirmative. "Then come and join me in the galley, please," said Eeth, rising from his chair.

Raven turned onto her back and then continued until she had rolled herself clean off the bed and onto the floor, the action stretching out her back and legs. She hated lying around doing classwork; almost anything was preferable. Even kitchen duty!

Eeth led the way towards the small kitchenette which was tucked into the one side of the galley that was not taken up by their dining table.

"Do you have any preferences for lunch?" he asked, rummaging through the cooler. "We still have a fairly good stock of fresh provisions and will be able to prepare something decent. When on Arkuna, one of the jobs Endal and I will take care of, while you and Master Drkai explore the fauna, will be to find out what kind of edible plants the planet offers."

Raven frowned. Her earlier jealousy was still a bit raw and she was a tad sensitive. "Are you planning on doing anything at all with me on Arkuna, or is Master Luthan eventually going to take over everything we do so you might spend more time with Endal?" It wasn't said with much venom, yet nor was it a throwaway query.

Eeth shut the cooler door with an audible click and turned around slowly.

"Padawan, I am going to explain a few things to you now, and I advise you to listen carefully because I will not repeat myself," he said in a voice of deceptive calm, folding his arms across his chest and fixing her with a penetrating glare. "I have arranged this mission for you, and especially for you, so that you can develop a skill you have that I have little to teach you about. I did not arrange it in order to delegate your training to some other master and save myself the effort. I am making a distinct effort to reserve time for you, and for you exclusively. What we are currently doing is part of this effort. I have also made sure to make time for a workout session between you and me every day. Now, whether we spend that time constructively and maybe even pleasantly or whether you spend it being disciplined for impertinence or whining is entirely up to you. Do you hear what I am saying?"

Raven opened her mouth to argue that, only to close it again. Her lips pursed. What point was there in arguing that she thought he wanted to be around Endal more because he was better than she was? None. He'd only throw it back at her. Thus, Raven gave a curt nod and started to help him with lunch, pulling things from the cupboard without another word. She was still not feeling particularly happy over Eeth's attention to Endal, even if she wanted to avoid his displeasure over voicing as much.

Actually, Eeth had been looking forward to sharing this time with his padawan, but it was obvious that said padawan was unable to overcome her misplaced jealousy. He had no idea where it even came from but there was no denying that it was there. He internally debated for a moment whether to ignore the silliness or spank it out of her; both options had their merit. However, it suddenly occurred to him that, had the same thing happened with Lakhri, he would have been a lot quicker to mete out a few swats. He also remembered how many mistakes he had made with Lakhri. As his master had been fond of telling him, setting firm boundaries and enforcing them was going to solve many problems, but not all problems could be solved this way, and some would even be made worse.

With an internal sigh about silly children needing emotional reassurance, he plucked a bread loaf out of Raven's hand, sat down on a chair and pulled her towards his lap.

"Wait, no! I was just saying," Raven said in a rush.

"Hush," said Eeth sternly and placed her on his lap the right way up, which was doubtlessly a surprise to her. "Link with me, padawan," he ordered, dropping his shields.

He opened himself up to Raven completely, projecting all of his affection and pride in her. He also showed her his feelings for Endal, which were of a far more professional nature. While he certainly liked the boy, what he felt for him was mostly a sense of duty.

"There, padawan," he said in a tone of voice that was somewhere between indulgence and exasperation. "Are you ready to give up on your misplaced jealousy?"

Raven sank a little lower in his lap, unwilling to admit that she might have overreacted. Instead, she simply nodded a curt affirmative.

"Good," said Eeth. "I expect you to get rid of these silly notions, rather than nurse your hurt feelings. We will do a workout of our own this afternoon. Now help me peel the kaggas."

Raven slid from his lap, somewhat reluctantly, and went about doing as he said. It had been a comfort to see Eeth's feelings for her through their bond, yet she still didn't like the idea that Endal garnered so much of this time, nor did she think her hurt feelings were 'silly notions'. It niggled away at her despite the fact that she knew it was unfounded.

Quite a while later, Eeth and Raven had finished preparing lunch and there was still no sign of Drkai and Endal.

"I will get them," Eeth told Raven, brows furrowed. "After all, we have got a schedule. We need to start on some mission preparation after lunch."

He marched over to the cabin that Drkai and Endal shared and rapped on its door smartly.

"Lunch is ready!" he called.

Drkai sensed Eeth's approach a moment before he rapped on their door. She gave said door a slight frown and then glanced at her watch. Alright, it was five minutes past the time they had agreed upon, but Drkai had assumed some flexibility where apparently, there was to be none. "You'll have to finish that later, padawan," said Drkai, not allowing any of her thoughts to colour their exchange. "Wash your hands, and I'll meet you in the galley."

"Hmm?" Endal said distractedly without raising his eyes from the datapad. "It's alright. I'm not hungry. Go ahead and eat without me."

"You might not be hungry now, but you will be later. It's hardly the point, though. It's also rather impolite and ungrateful not to show your face when someone has taken the time to make a meal for you, don't you think?" Drkai gave him a pointed look, not exactly expecting him to argue that point, but willing to take the time to explain. She always took the time to explain when the consequences of doing so were benign.

Endal sighed and put his datapad aside. "Alright, master," he said dutifully. He rose to wash his hands and follow her into the galley.

"Thanks for making lunch," he said politely.

"Indeed, this looks lovely," said Drkai. "Thank you both for the effort."

Raven smiled at the Zabrak woman, noticing, not for the first time, that when Drkai moved, it was with a seemingly innate sense of feminine grace; she never looked rushed, flustered or uncontrolled. Raven admired that and found herself trying to emulate a similar poise as she reached for the jug of juice and slid it towards them. "Juice? It's kiviflower," Raven said, pushing the pitcher towards Endal. She hoped he would like it; it wasn't exactly as nice as orange fizz, but then, that was a rare treat.

"Thanks," Endal said gratefully, accepting the pitcher. He yawned and ran a hand across his head, making his hair appear even messier than it had been before.

"You might want to use a comb occasionally," Eeth remarked.

"What? Oh... yeah," Endal said, blushing. His master did occasionally remind him of such things, but not with much vigour. Apparently, Eeth – who, Endal noticed, somehow always managed to look impeccable – took matters of appearance more seriously, as he did punctuality.

Drkai gave a slight smile; she didn't see any need to appear impeccably groomed while on a long starship trip with fellow Jedi. Clean, yes, but the rest? Drkai was a bit more relaxed about minor things than Eeth was.

Endal's mind was not on his food. He was normally neither a particularly poor nor strong eater, but today, he was tired and did not feel like eating. Not really registering most of the conversation during lunch, much of which centred around his master's past missions, he pushed his food around on his plate, had a few bites and finally pushed the half-eaten plate away.

"May I be excused?" he asked his master politely. "I'm not all that hungry."

Eeth suppressed a frown at this request but decided not to intervene in what was Drkai's decision to make. Personally, having grown up in the slums of Nar Shaddaa with little to eat, he took meals very seriously and consequently never excused his padawan from the table before everyone was finished, and never with a half-eaten plate either. However, he was aware, at this point in his life, that his own standards were not universal laws. Drkai might handle this differently from him and was well within her rights to do so.

Drkai looked at the token amount of food Endal had consumed and frowned. Had they been entertaining guests in a professional capacity, she would not have allowed it, nor did she think Endal would have asked under such circumstances. However, this was simply a starship journey with fellow Jedi; thus, she was inclined to feel more at home. "Eat another piece of vegetable and half the kagga mash, and you may be excused," said Drkai, knowing that if he ate that much, it would at least tide him over until their next meal.

"Alright," said Endal with a sigh. He hastily gobbled a few spoonfuls of kagga mash and a piece of puripp and washed them down with a cup of water. Then he took his half-eaten plate and stood.

Raven, who was notoriously 'not hungry', especially so on long, boring spaceship journeys, watched Endal get up, a look of barely contained surprise on her face. She spooned another mouthful of mashed kagga as the boy put his plate on the sink and started stacking the sterilizer. "Can I go, too, please? I've eaten more than half," Raven pointed out, looking at Eeth with a hopeful expression. It was perhaps uncharitable of her to make such a request given what she knew of Eeth's expectations, yet at this moment, it didn't seem beneath her to attempt taking advantage of this situation. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like an injustice that Endal was allowed such liberties when she was not, even if this wasn't the first time such a thing had happened.

"No," Eeth replied, stony-faced. "You may leave when everyone present has finished eating and when you have emptied your plate. I have never allowed you to throw food away; I am not going to start now."

Eeth had spoken quietly but Endal had still heard him. He turned around, a look of surprise on his face. It was clear that Eeth held Raven to different standards from what Endal was used to. He was apparently also trying to keep out of Drkai's affairs, judging from the way in which he avoided looking at the Zabrak master or her padawan.

Deciding to try and minimise the tension, and being as nonchalant about it as possible, he sauntered back to the table and retook his seat, giving Raven a sympathetic smile.

Drkai realised that she had misread the situation. She closed her eyes briefly but had to concede that at this point, the damage was already done. When Endal retook his seat, she gave him a slight nod of approval. She was pleased that he had reacted in a way that would save further antagonising Raven, or Eeth for that matter.

Raven, for her part, frowned at Eeth. She, too, could see that Eeth's comment had probably been overheard and that Endal had returned perhaps because of it. She did, however, send a surge of resentment across their bond. "Why do you have to ruin everything with your stupid rules!" The comment was not spoken, yet projected. It had been her fault for trying to take advantage of him, but Raven didn't care about that.

Eeth rose from his seat abruptly. "Padawan, please join me in our room for a moment," he said. His tone of voice was calm but it was quite clear that he was not going to brook resistance.

Raven's surly expression morphed into shock and settled on something that Drkai could only describe as dread with a streak of humiliation.

When Raven reluctantly stood and left, Eeth said politely, "Excuse us for a moment," and followed her towards their room.

Whatever their private exchange, and Drkai was quite sure there had been one, it must have been serious. She looked to Endal. "That certainly went over well," she said dryly, a finger tapping the side of her chin thoughtfully. "We'll need to be more careful in future. Thank you for doing the right thing."

Endal gave a brief and slightly embarrassed nod. He just hoped Raven wasn't going to catch it!

Eeth, for his part, thought that he needed to discuss this with Drkai later. It had probably been inevitable that one of their padawans would try to take advantage of the differences between their masters' expectations. Eeth had no intention of lowering his standards. At the same time, he had not meant to make Drkai look bad, which was probably what had happened. For now, though, his concern was with Raven whom he fixed with a stern look as the door closed behind him.

"What Endal is or is not allowed to do," he said, "is between him and his master. It is of no concern to you. You know my rules. They have not changed. Whether you consider them stupid or not, I will not suddenly allow you to get away with behaviour that I have never let you get away with. I expect you to mind my rules, not Drkai's. If you try to exploit the differences between us again, there will be consequences. Is that clear?"

The conditioned and expected 'yes, master,' response was on the tip of Raven's tongue, but she squared her jaw and frowned at his boots instead. "You didn't have to embarrass me by removing us from the table. You could have waited until later," she accused him. She liked Drkai and Endal and didn't want them to know that Eeth had dragged her away to be told off, or worse. The skin just beneath her eyes was flushed pink, and her stomach still had that icy, cringing feeling when she thought about how bad this looked.

Eeth pulled out his paddle. Completely ignoring the raised hands and efforts to placate him this action drew from Raven, he took hold of her shoulder, bent her over, tucked her under his left arm and swatted her three times, hard. "This," he snapped, "could not have waited until later. If you want to know what embarrassment really looks like, by all means keep complaining. The next time you do, I will not pay you the courtesy of removing you from the company of our fellow team members before I discipline you. Now, will you mind my rules and refrain from protesting them?"

If Raven had been pink before, she was positively glowing now. The three swats had practically reverberated off the walls, and boy, did it hurt. She struggled in his hold, wanting to be let up but soon realised that he was waiting for her answer. Raven was familiar with how this would go down, and given that she didn't want another swat, ceased with the struggling and delivered the expected response. "Yes, master, sorry master, it won't happen again." It had taken some prompting from Eeth early on in her apprenticeship, but Raven was pretty sure that reciting that line had saved her ass many times.

"Good," said Eeth sternly. "Now we are going to return to the galley where you will finish your plate without further ado. Is that understood?"

Raven wanted to ask that Eeth give her some time to compose herself. Force, just long enough for her ass to stop burning and for her face to lose some of the red glow! But again, making requests while still pinned under his arm was not worth the risk. Thus, Raven answered him with a contrite: "Yes, master," even though it was as far from what she wanted to do right now as could be imagined.

"Then go," Eeth said, releasing his hold on her. And Raven did.

* * *

"Could we talk in private for a moment?" asked Eeth in a low voice as Endal and Raven started clearing the table sometime later. When Drkai accepted, Eeth stood, and they left their padawans to finish up without them.

"What's on your mind?" asked Drkai, seating herself opposite him on one of the lounges in their common room.

"First, I would like to apologise," said Eeth. "I did not mean to make you look bad. At the same time, I did not want my padawan to think that she could exploit your presence to make me relinquish my standards. We probably should have foreseen this and discussed it in advance. I think I made clear to my padawan that my expectations will not change but she might still try to exploit your relatively higher leniency in some regards. Are there any aspects that you can think of where this might turn out to be a problem?"

"You did not make me look bad," Drkai reassured him, leaning forward to engage him further. "Rather, you made it look like you and Raven have your own set of rules which is to be expected. As for your question, Raven has been a delight to instruct so far, despite her willful nature. She is also relatively compliant when called to task, or so it seemed." Drkai was not only referring to the awkwardness in which Raven had reluctantly retaken her seat and finished her meal that evening, but also to how she responded to Eeth in general.

"She is, mostly," said Eeth. "But she can also be stubborn. I can deal with that. I might be able to avoid causing her embarrassment, and possibly resentment, though, if I knew what to expect. Have you noticed any particular areas in which I expect things of Raven that you do not expect of Endal?"

"I'd say, for the most part, we are aligned in our expectations," said Drkai, looking thoughtful as she considered the question. "I'm more lenient with the little things, I guess. I don't mind so much if Endal is scruffy-looking during a spaceship journey, as long as he's clean. And, as you discovered, nor do I force him into finishing all of his food. I must admit, being picky over food is not generally an issue with Endal, and the few times it has been, he knows he'll be waiting until the next meal to eat again. I will occasionally bend the rules if I feel it appropriate for him, and apart from his physical training, which I have recently reevaluated and stepped up, Endal responds well to this approach. Is there anything I should know about Raven that you haven't already told me?" Like Eeth, Drkai was not exactly thrilled over recent events.

Eeth thought about this for a moment. "Well, she is none too enthusiastic about having to do lessons and meditations," he said. "I am particularly strict about her schoolwork because the one term I granted her more leeway, she managed to fail her maths exam so spectacularly that she was placed in a remedial class. I assume that this would not be an issue with Endal but with Raven, it is. During your lessons with her, make sure she does her meditations properly. She has a tendency to try and cut them short. Oh, and one more thing. Her emotions are sometimes stronger than her good judgment, and that may become an issue under field conditions. Especially when you are dealing with dangerous animals."

Drkai's eyebrow lifted a fraction when Eeth mentioned the remedial maths class. No, that wasn't a problem with Endal. Also, she found it surprising that Eeth had let it go that far unless, of course, Raven had actively hidden it from him. It was possible, not that she envied either of them if this had been the case. "Thanks, I'll keep my eye on her. So far, we've been lucky although I have noticed that she doesn't appreciate a lot of sitting around and focusing. We will survive," Drkai said, her smile reaching her eyes.

"I daresay we will," said Eeth, returning her smile with a small one of his own. "But keep an eye on her once we are on Arkuna. Her impulses have been known to get the better of her."

He rose from his seat and said, "Thank you for this talk. Let us get started with our mission preparation meeting now."

A few minutes later, the table was cleaned and all four team members were seated around it. A large holograph of the planet hung over the tabletop, shimmering bluish, and Eeth had handed out datapads with satellite pictures, showing the landmass in more detail, to everyone.

The objective of their mission was twofold: First, to detect any sentient or near-sentient life. Four people were too few to explore every subregion in a reasonable amount of time; that was why Drkai's and Raven's Force work would be essential. They would be moving around a lot. If things went smoothly, they might be done in about a month; if they encountered problems, it might take them longer.

The second objective was to find out as much as they could about the conditions the settlers would meet, including possible dangers and the options for harvesting food and starting agricultural ventures. Eeth and Endal would mostly work on that part, mapping the continent and analysing soil and plants. The likelihood that they were going to meet any known plants and animals was low, although the possibility that known species had reached the planet by way of emergency-landed spaceships or explorers could not be excluded. They discussed the best landing point for a while and finally settled for a semi-arid region that was closer to the equator than to the pole.

That was enough for today, Eeth decided; tomorrow, they would start plotting a detailed course that would take them across the continent.

With Raven's previous jealousy in mind, he said to Drkai, "For today, I would prefer to have a one-on-one sparring session with my padawan. We could plan a joint session for tomorrow if you agree. Will that be alright with you?"

"It will," said Drkai, putting a hand on Endal's shoulder. "We'll work on something light, yes," she assured her padawan and led him towards the common room area where she and Raven had fed the spiders. There was enough room there to do some Force work.

"You don't have to, you know. I'm not jealous or anything." Raven said to Eeth when they were well out of earshot. It was a lie, of course, because Raven _was_ feeling jealous over the amount of time Eeth was devoting to Endal. Still, she was handling it well enough and didn't think it was right that her issues mess up his duty to a fellow padawan in need.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "I know you are jealous and there is no point in denying it," he said. "I also know that I do not have to do this. I still decided to do it. Get changed into workout clothes and meet me in the cargo hold."

Exactly seven minutes later, Raven was in padawan heaven! Eeth was chasing her around the cargo hold that had been set up to work Endal, and Force, was it FUN! She flipped off crates, swung off ropes, leapt and vaulted her way off walls, beams and much to her delight, ceiling rings! Eeth wasn't giving her an inch either, which Raven appreciated.

Finally, Eeth called the session to a halt. "Up you get, padawan," he ordered, offering a hand to Raven who was lying starfished on the floor, beaming up at him. "Take a shower. And then you need to study some more. You can work with padawan Endal. I hear he is very good at astrophysics; he might be able to help you out if you have difficulties. I need to do a workout of my own."

Eeth was still not back to his full strength after his illness and worked hard on regaining it. He also planned on asking Master Luthan whether she wanted to do some sparring with him so he could get to know his mission partner better.

"You need to do a workout of your own? Really?" Raven feigned indignation, doing her best to conceal the fact that Eeth had totally wasted her.

"Yes, really," said Eeth severely, completely ignoring the attempt at humour. "I have been ill and have still not regained my full physical strength. And you need to complete your astrophysics assignment before dinner."

Before showering, Eeth and Raven went to the galley to get some water and perhaps, at least for Raven, a piece of fruit. Drkai glanced up when they entered, having just finished with her padawan. She was congratulating him on his focus, an arm around his shoulders. Knowing how preteens could feel about such shows of affection in the company of others, Drkai released him and stood. Raven looked as if she had been put through her paces, but was happy about it.

"Whoa," said Endal when he caught sight of the sweat-covered Raven. "Your master grants you no mercy, does he? Does he work you that hard every day?"

Raven tilted her head, unsure if he was making fun of her or serious. After a moment, she realized that the latter was true and smiled. "Yeah, he sure does. Such a slave driver, right?" Raven shot Eeth a playful grin.

Eeth returned her grin with a stony look, which made Endal chuckle.

"Take a shower, padawan," said Eeth. "After that, it will be schoolwork."

Raven offered Eeth a salute that would have impressed the pickiest high-ranking officer and went to do as told, that cheeky grin still on her face. It was fun teasing her master, and his lack of reaction seemed to make it all the more entertaining. Apparently, Endal agreed.

Unfortunately, Raven's playful, high-spirited mood departed somewhat when she entered their galley and was sentenced to classwork. She waited until both masters had left before dropping her head in her hands. She hated astrophysics!

Meanwhile, Drkai was happy to offer Eeth a workout. She shared his belief that sparring together provided a good idea of who you were working with. Despite her confidence, Drkai found herself feeling a little nervous as she chucked her cloak. Eeth's skill with a lightsaber was renowned. In fact, he was considered the best the Temple had to offer. It was precisely for his superior skill and ability that she had jumped at the opportunity to have him tutor Endal, after all. "Well, no point in worrying, I might just learn something myself," she thought and started running through a stretching sequence.

Eeth started out slowly to get a feel for Drkai's style and level of skill. He also wanted to give her an opportunity to get used to his. He was very much used to sparring with less skilled opponents and knew how to deal with it. Early on in his career at the Temple, he had learned that it would not do to needlessly humiliate others just to demonstrate his own superiority. It tended to antagonise them. Only much later had he understood that his own superiority was not at all the point. It helped to just follow the flow of the Force and find one's own rhythm, and presumably, Drkai was just as capable of that as he was.

Drkai did her best to make Eeth work hard in order to break through her defences, and when he did, she switched from Soresu to Ataru, forcing him into defending. Ataru was by no means her natural form, yet neither was she lacking in skill. Of course, when the inevitable eventually happened, and her lightsaber left her hand just long enough for Eeth to finalise the match, Drkai chuckled. Her gratitude to the Force, and Eeth for the fact that he was coaching her padawan, projected. "Up for more?" It wasn't really a question, so when Eeth nodded, they were at it again.

Drkai lost herself in the exercise; working with Eeth was indeed a pleasure, and her skills improved as a result. When they finally disengaged, their sabers lowered at the same time, and Drkai offered him a formal bow. "Suitably exhausted?" she inquired, wiping sweat from her brow and attaching her lightsaber.

"Yes, thank you," Eeth said with a smile. He enjoyed training Raven but it usually took a workout with an adult Jedi to make him break a sweat – which still happened sooner than it had before his disease. It was annoying but it could not be helped.

Eeth sat on a crate, wiped his forehead with a towel and drank some water from his bottle.

Drkai kept moving as she took gulps from her own bottle, yet did not shift out of comfortable conversation range; she had a lot on her mind lately, and now seemed like a good time to talk about it. "You're doing great work with my padawan," she remarked, swiping a sleeve across her forehead. "I have to admit that it does make me feel like I have failed him for taking this long to address his lack of progress." It was an unambiguous statement, to the point and void of self-pity. Yet it did expose her insecurities to Eeth's scrutiny.

Eeth was caught off-guard by this statement. He was still not entirely used to other people asking him for advice on how to raise a padawan, which was probably what Drkai was doing. He was not sure he was doing a good enough job as a master to hand out any such advice, anyway.

"Raising a padawan," he replied slowly, choosing his words with care, "is a difficult task, and I am by no means an expert in it. I am certainly not immune to making mistakes of my own. It is clear that you are dedicated to your padawan, that he feels attached to you and has a lot of trust in you. And Raven is thriving with you as a teacher. So, what is it that you feel you might have been doing wrong? Do you think you should have been stricter with Endal?"

"Where his physical training is concerned, yes, I do. I'm aware that we all have strengths and weaknesses as masters," she said, accepting Eeth's admittance of his own insecurities and understanding them. "However, the fact that it took me this long to realise as much has me doubting myself." Drkai wanted to ask if he ever doubted himself, but she ended up sitting down beside him instead, her back leaning into the wall.

"He has not been your padawan for all that long," said Eeth, "and you have no prior experience with raising one. Like most masters, you might need some time to find a way of raising your padawan that meets his needs, but is also consistent with your own personality. That is not an easy thing to accomplish. The important thing is to realise when something is not working well for Endal, and then changing it. And that is what you are doing. With my first padawan, Lakhri, I was far too harsh and reluctant to provide emotional support. This was a bad combination and the consequences were quite disastrous. It took my former master's intervention for me to see this and improve my relationship with him. In your case, your relationship with Endal has never been an issue, as far as I can tell. And as for his difficulties with his physical training, you realised them yourself and you took steps to deal with them before any serious damage was done. I do not think you have any reason to be overly hard on yourself." Eeth was fleetingly wondering whether the same was true for him. Was he really doing better with Raven than with Lakhri? But these were thoughts he was not ready to voice.

It might be considered uncharitable of her, but hearing of Eeth's past struggle filled Drkai with a sense of relief. Surely if a master of Eeth's calibre had experienced problems teaching his first apprentice, it was okay for her to find some, too? Another quickly replaced that thought. No matter how expected or reparable her failings were, they were still failings. Drkai blew out a breath, drained the bottle of water and turned a comradely smile on Eeth. "I appreciate the reassurance. Endal excels at most things. It's just this blasted physical training wall that he's thrown up for himself. Breaking that down without breaking him, while maintaining long term progress, is the goal." She had Eeth's help with that, at least for the first part, and she was grateful for it.

"That wall is already crumbling," said Eeth. "Endal is a fairly compliant boy, and what is more, he is clearly meant to be a Jedi. There is still plenty of time for him to make progress with his training. I believe that both of you will be fine."

"Oh, so do I. It's not his suitability I was doubting." Drkai's smile turned wry and she relaxed back into the wall. "Let's go see what they're up to."


	4. Chapter 4

For a while, the two padawans tasked with completing their school assignments worked away quietly. Well, at least Endal did. When he was interrupted by the third groan on Raven's part, he gave her a sympathetic look.

"That hard?" he asked. "D'you need any help?"

"Oh, I can think of worse things to call this," Raven said, dragging a hand down her face. "But yeah, some help would be great. As long as it doesn't hold you up." Given what she knew of Endal, this was probably not the case, but she had to be sure.

Endal grinned. "Unlikely," he said cheerfully. "I just need to do some Huttese translation. It's easy. It's astrophysics you're doing, isn't it?"

He pulled Raven's datapad towards himself, took a look at the problem Raven was supposed to solve, scratched his head and nodded.

"That's pretty straightforward," he said. "You just have to transpose it like this, with the matrix that's been explained here."

He scrolled back to the previous page.

"See?" he asked.

Raven saw the matrix and knew that she needed to transpose from it, but that was where it all started going awry. "Kinda," she admitted and started jotting down what she thought might work while Endal watched on with increasing disbelief.

"This is a negative value," he cautioned. "You lost it while transferring it to the other side of the equation. You need to erase that step and do it again."

While he talked, he pulled up his own datapad and tapped it so the phrase he was supposed to memorise was read to him in correct pronunciation.

"Oh, yeah…" Raven sighed, starting over.

She hadn't been at it for long when her mind began to wander to Endal's translations. "You know, I got to use Huttese for real on our mission to Nar Shaddaa? Now that was an adventure to remember, and you should have seen Eeth. Force, you wouldn't have recognised him all dressed up like some punk rocker and cursing like it was nothing."

"Really?" Endal asked, eyes wide with curiosity. "What happened?"

"What didn't happen is more the question!" Raven said through a snort and started to tell him the tale. They continued to talk about Raven's missions, which were much more exciting than the one Endal had been on, until Endal finally threw a look onto his chrono and flinched.

"Force!" he exclaimed. "Look at the time. We really need to get started. If our masters find us talking and none of the work done, they'll go mental. Do you know how to solve that problem now?"

Raven looked at her watch and winced. "Probably not," she admitted, already resigned to the fact that she was going to wind up on Eeth's shit list over this. It wouldn't be the first time he had balled her out over her lack of focus when it came to classwork either, which was going to make it even worse. "What about you, can you get your translations finished in time?" Raven hoped that at least one of them would be spared their masters wrath.

"Yeah, sure," Endal said. "Besides, my master rarely checks my work, seeing as I always get top grades. Come on, I'll explain the problem to you."

Considering the time pressure and the fact that Raven seemed to have no clue what she was doing, at least not without doing a lot of reading and making a big mental effort, Endal ended up solving the problem for her. It was faster and easier than explaining all the concepts, anyway.

"You'd better put that down in your handwriting," he said a little uneasily, glancing at his watch again. It had not felt quite right to be doing this, but he did not want Raven to get into trouble with her master either. Besides, Endal liked to be helpful.

Raven, too, felt uneasy about this. Was it cheating? Well, kind of, but she had listened while Endal had explained and that surely had to be worth something… Yeah. Raven NEVER got away with stuff like this, not ever! Yet one look at Endal and she thought that maybe they just might pull it off as a team.

Endal hurriedly completed his Huttese translation and closed his datapad with a snap just as Drkai and Eeth entered the galley.

"Hello, padawan," said Eeth, walking over to Raven and looking over her shoulder. "Still at work? Did you manage to complete your astrophysics assignment?"

"Wait, I just finished," Raven announced while quickly erasing the last line of Endal's solution, and pushing the pad away as if it had personally offended her. That was a typical move for Raven, so it ought not to draw suspicion. "How was your workout?" She looked from Eeth to Drkai curiously.

Drkai smiled at them both and ruffled Endal's hair affectionately. He was so gifted at academics that she only ever checked his work to provide praise for a job well done. "I believe we are suitably worn out for the time being."

"We are," agreed Eeth. He sat down in the chair next to Raven and said, "Let me check your work, please."

"Right now? Don't you want to take a shower first? No offence or anything but you're kinda sweaty." Raven stopped short of saying that it would also give her another chance to go over it if only because that was so out of character for her that he might just think she had lost the plot.

"Padawan, are you or are you not finished?" Eeth inquired. He had ample experience with Raven's attempts at evasiveness and this one roused his suspicion instantly.

"I am, but I just thought you might want to shower or… whatever." Resigned, she slumped a little lower in her seat as Eeth slid the pad towards himself and took up the stylus. A bit more time to make that look a bit less perfect might have worked in her favour. Then again, maybe he wouldn't question it? Heck, he forced her to study often enough. Yeah….

Unfortunately, Raven's solution was so simple, elegant and flawless that it roused Eeth's suspicions to an even higher level.

"That is a very good way to solve that problem," he said calmly. "I notice that in the fifth line, you summed up two steps in one."

"Yeah, I figured that it would be easier that way," Raven bluffed.

"True," said Eeth, "but if you leave out steps, it might be difficult for your teacher to understand what you were doing. You had better specify the calculations you made to arrive at the result in line six."

He handed the datapad back to Raven, motioning for her to do as he had told her.

"What, right now?"

"Yes, because I want to see that you knew what you were doing," Eeth replied bluntly.

Raven held back the urge to complain about having to do more work upon noticing the look on his face. Reluctantly, she found the section he was talking about, picked up the stylus and started scratching down stuff that looked like it ought to fit. Sort of. After a minute or so of this, it became clear that she was stumped. The first line had been logical enough, but the next few were a mess. "Endal explained it to me, but I forgot, is all," Raven was forced to admit, her nose scrunching and leg bouncing nervously.

Endal figured the fat was in the fire now. It was nice of Raven to want to keep him out of this, but at this point it took no genius to find out what had happened.

"Uh… Master Eeth?" he ventured. "I kind of helped her. She didn't really know what to do, so I explained it to her. I think she understood the logic… it might just be hard to reproduce when you are looking at her that way…"

Force knew _he_ would not be able to think straight when fixed with such a penetrating glare!

"Thank you, Padawan Endal," Eeth said cuttingly. "The truth, padawan. Did Endal 'kind of help you' or did you let him do your work for you?"

Raven appreciated what Endal was trying to do, really she did, but there was just no way she could outright lie to Eeth. It had only ever worked once, and that had wound up in her eventual guilt leading to a confession. What a clusterfuck that had been, thought Raven. Unwilling to go there a second time, she blew out a sigh. "I let him do it for me," she confessed. "It wasn't Endal's fault, though. He was just trying to help, and we got a bit carried away, I swear." Raven did not want to see if Endal was giving her a betrayed look or if Master Luthan was mad, so she kept her eyes on Eeth's chest.

"That," Eeth said in a voice of deceptive calm, "I will leave for Padawan Endal and his master to discuss. You, padawan, are coming with me. We need to have a serious talk about your work habits."

Without waiting to see whether she was following, he turned and made for their cabin in long strides.

It was all Raven could do not to argue that Eeth wasn't listening to them properly, that it had been an accident! Endal had just been trying to help her out. Yet the truth was that they had gotten caught up swapping stories and in their haste to catch up on missed work, she had let Endal take the lead. Now he was going to get into trouble, too, not that Raven spared a look at Master Luthan before leaving. She just gave Endal an apologetic look and reluctantly followed Eeth out the door, dragging her feet and clearly in no rush to find out what Eeth had to say about all of this.

Eeth, however, had no patience for dawdling in such situations, and he made that plain to Raven by taking a few steps backwards towards her, grabbing her braid and pulling her all the way into their cabin and towards the small desk.

"Ahh! Wait. I'm going, I'm going!" the padawan yelped, stumbling forward and leaning awkwardly to lessen the pull on her braid.

Completely ignoring her, and without missing a beat, Eeth closed the door with a wave of his hand and pulled out the chair from under the desk. Only then did he release his hold on Raven's braid, glowering at her.

The moment Eeth let go, Raven tried to maintain what was left of her dignity and stand up straight, but a traitorous hand reached up to massage the base of her braid. That had hurt, not horribly so, but enough to warrant feeling sorry for oneself.

"You might not take your education seriously, padawan, but I do," snapped Eeth. "I know you are not too stupid to solve this problem on your own. You are free to ask for help when you need it, but you are not free to exploit others in order to avoid a mental effort. This mission will require you to do a lot of work on your lessons independently. If you find yourself unable to do so, I might simply come to the conclusion that you are too immature yet for such long-term assignments. The fact that you let Endal do your work for you reveals a very poor attitude about this aspect of your training. You are in sore need of an attitude adjustment, and I will be happy to provide you with one."

With this, he sat down on the chair, pulled out his paddle and said: "Bare your bottom and get over my lap, padawan. Now."

Raven baulked at the appearance of Eeth's paddle, but only for a second before she bunched both trousers and underpants at her knees in one swift motion. Force, as if hearing that Eeth thought she did not take her education seriously, that she had taken advantage of Endal and that she was too immature for this mission had not been devastating enough to hear! Having to assume this position bent over his lap, splayed fingers and booted toes trying to find purchase while maintaining some sense of dignity, made it all feel ten times worse.

Eeth pushed her tunic well out of the way and brought the paddle down onto Raven's bottom smartly, drawing a hiss of pain in response. He was about running out of patience with his padawan's reluctance to set her mind to her lessons, especially those that she disliked; and he was even less inclined to tolerate such behaviour on a mission that required her to do her schoolwork individually. What was more, copying someone else's work was deceitful and unworthy of a Jedi padawan, and he knew that Raven knew it. With this in mind, he focussed on the task of providing his errant padawan with a very strong reminder of what her duties were, bringing the paddle down onto her quickly reddening bottom hard and fast.

Raven knew what to expect; the problem was that the reality always turned out to be a lot worse than she had remembered! "Master, AHh! P-please!" she yelped as the sixth swat practically branded itself across her bare skin. Of course, the futility of such a request was entirely lost on her in lieu of the moment.

"Maybe you will think about this the next time you are tempted to pass off somebody else's work as your own," Eeth said grimly.

The faster she learned that lesson, the better; it was with this in mind that he applied the next half dozen swats, all centred right onto her sit spot and overlapping each other.

Although Raven wanted to accept correction, it was impossible to do so with any measure of control when such care was being taken to make the experience as excruciating as possible. When the twelfth landed, and Eeth did not stop, Raven threw a hand back out of desperation. "Pleasemaster! It hurrrrts!" Raven squealed. Eeth rarely gave her more than twelve with the paddle, especially so hard! "I'm sorreeee!"

Eeth did not particularly care about apologies at this point. On the other hand, he cared about his padawan's education very much, and knowing how big the temptation would be for further occurrences of this sort, he wanted to thoroughly discourage such things from the outset. Endal was welcome to help out with explanations and advice, but for Raven to copy down answers without having understood the concepts behind them to the slightest degree was something that Eeth was not going to tolerate.

Therefore, he did not stop at a dozen swats, but merely grabbed her hands, pinned them to the small of her back and dealt out four more solid swats, this time to the backs of her thighs. Only then did he release her hands, put the paddle on the desk and waited for his padawan to regain some semblance of composure.

Composure and Raven were not on speaking terms for now. In fact, the pain had built to such an intensity that, had Eeth not released her hands, Raven wouldn't have been sure that he'd actually stopped. She lay limply over his lap, one hand cupping and rubbing furiously at the sorest spot while she did her utmost to stop crying. That had really fucking hurt.

Eeth indulged her for a minute. Then he calmly and firmly helped her up from his lap.

"You have five minutes to clean yourself up," he informed her. "After that, you come back here and start your astrophysics assignment all over. And this time, you do it on your own. You have got far more brains than you think you do, and you are going to use them."

It was tough for Raven to stand there and listen to Eeth's instructions while sniffling, and while it still hurt so badly. It always was. Yet this time, she managed to keep from jumping around the room, tearing up her pants and storming off in a fit of temper or other post-physical punishment indignities. Instead, she pulled up her trousers, gave a slight nod and went to do as told. Once she was in their bathroom, however, it was every padawan for themselves! Raven knew how to make the most of those five minutes, and she did so; the cold tiles were bliss.

In the meantime, Endal was having his own problems. Once Eeth had dragged Raven unceremoniously from the room, he turned a slightly anxious look towards his master. He felt a bit of relief over the fact that Eeth had chosen not to deal with him himself since the Zabrak Jedi was downright scary! But crossing Drkai was not a great idea either, and if he could prevent her from punishing him, it was worth a try!

"I'm sorry, master," he said in a small voice. "Don't be mad. Raven didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do, and I just wanted to help."

"I'm not mad," said Drkai, taking up the seat Raven had vacated. "I am, however, disappointed in your choices. Can you tell me why that might be?" Drkai wanted to give him a chance to work this out for himself before she offered explanations.

"Well, I guess I was supposed to let her work it out for herself," said Endal contritely. "I tried. She just didn't get it." He thought it prudent not to mention the fact that they had got caught up talking about missions, which was why they had had little time left for him to explain anything!

"Yes, having Raven work the problem out for herself would have been better for you both. I imagine that it would also have required a little more time and effort to achieve. Given your prowess in Huttese and astrophysics and the fact that we were gone for over an hour leads me to believe that it was not a lack of time, but a lack of effort," said Drkai, who was now frowning slightly.

"We did make an effort!" protested Endal. "I mean, I finished my Huttese and all! I'm just not good at explaining this stuff. It comes to me naturally and I don't get why other people don't get it." This was partly true, but nor had Endal made much of an effort at explaining.

"I'll grant you that it does take time to learn how to teach," said Drkai, "But I sense you're not being entirely truthful with me. Did you help Raven to the best of your ability, or did you do the work for her because it was easier and, perhaps, neither of you were entirely focused on the job at hand?"

Endal might not be above trying to get away with some things but he would never outright lie to his master.

"Well, we got caught up talking a little," he admitted. "I'm sorry. I know we weren't supposed to. We didn't mean to; it kind of happened. We won't do it again."

"It didn't just happen without your knowledge. You didn't use your time as instructed, and when you realised that time was short, you tried to make up for it by doing Raven's work for her." Drkai knew that Endal was sorry, but that didn't excuse his behaviour. "Come here," she told him, sliding her chair back to allow room for compliance.

Endal grimaced. It seemed as if his attempt to talk his way out of it had failed. It often did although his success rate was probably considerably higher than Raven's, especially with the little things. Apparently, Drkai didn't think of this as a little thing, not that Endal could blame her. He knew he had been wrong. It was just that he hated being punished!

"Please, master, I know I shouldn't have done it," he said in a small voice while moving towards her reluctantly. "I promise it won't happen again."

"I sincerely hope it doesn't. For now, though, I'm going to give you some incentive to keep that promise."

Drkai wasn't angry with Endal. In fact, the initial anger she'd felt had come and gone in a flash. She did, however, level him with a displeased expression when he stood before her. Drkai didn't enjoy having to punish Endal like this, but there was no doubt that he deserved it. "Pants down," she said without further comment and patted her lap once.

Endal sighed and complied. He was not going to enjoy this either, but at this point, arguing was going to be futile at best. He slid his pants down to his knees and lay over his master's lap a little awkwardly. This was not the first time he assumed this position but nor was it a particularly frequent occurrence, and consequently, it tended to feel rather embarrassing to him.

Not one for lecturing at this point, Drkai shifted Endal until she was satisfied with the angle and then brought her hand down onto his bare skin with as much force as she could muster. The swat made a piercingly sharp smacking sound, and although Drkai did not have the upper body strength of someone like Eeth, it would be sufficient to make this lesson memorable.

Endal winced and hissed. This hurt, and the fact that he had expected it to did nothing to lessen the pain. He refrained from begging, though; judging from experience, this was not going to accomplish anything at this point.

Drkai settled herself into dealing out swat after sharp swat, each smack adding another layer of heat and colour to Endal's typically pale backside.

Endal valiantly tried to keep his composure but he could not quite refrain from squirming on his master's lap, trying to writhe away from the unceasing swats. Little yelps and moans escaped him and, much to his embarrassment, he sensed an unbidden tear prick at his eyelid.

Unfortunately, Endal was not quite where Drkai wanted him yet. So, and despite the distress she sensed from him, Drkai stopped spanking just long enough to raise her knee, forcing Endal further forward onto his hands. The reprieve was short-lived because a moment later, her hand began to fall again, this time onto his newly presented undercurve and thighs.

"Ouch!" yelped Endal, the tear finally leaving his eyes and rolling down his temple into his hair. His hands curled around the legs of the chair in an effort not to cover his bottom, and he started kicking in a futile attempt to alleviate the sting. "M-master! P-please! M-sorrieee!"

Endal's reaction was understandable, yet Drkai's goal was to make sure this lesson stuck so that they would never have to repeat it. It was with this in mind that she took a tighter grip around his waist and meted out another ten solid swats, focusing solely on the backs of his thighs and making each as hard as she could make them. Only when the skin there matched the bright red hue of his bottom did Drkai loosen her hold on him. "Alright, padawan. That's enough of that now," Drkai consoled, her gentle tone a contradiction to the thorough spanking that she had just meted out. Her hand patted his back in a soothing motion, allowing Endal time to come to terms with the punishment.

By this point, Endal was crying freely. That had hurt, and there was no use in pretending otherwise. He managed to bring his sobs under control quickly, though, sliding off his master's lap.

"Sorry, master," he sniffled.

"Forgiven," Drkai said softly, pulling him into a brief hug. When Endal pulled back, Drkai patted him once and let him go. She picked up the datapad that was still where he and Raven had been working and handed it to him. "Go wash your face, and then come back out and help me start dinner."

"Alright," said Endal softly, accepting the datapad and swiping a sleeve across his eyes.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, Raven had finally squirmed and fidgeted her way through the astrophysics assignment. Her ass hurt, and now she was hungry to boot. She risked a sideways glance at Eeth and then looked back down at her datapad; it was done, all save for a final edit, and so she pushed it aside. "It's time for dinner, right?" she said, breaking over an hour-long stretch of silence between them.

"Are you finished with your assignment?" inquired Eeth.

"Yes, master… Just need to edit, is all." She stood, stretched, and gave him a hopeful look.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Then sit down and edit it," he said. "I did not give you permission to stop."

Raven sat, and her ass protested; it still hurt, and having to sit on it for the last hour had not been easy. "But I'm hungry," she complained, lifting her weight off the chair ever so slightly.

Eeth gave her a scrutinising look. He could sense that, while she certainly wanted to get out of finishing her work now, she was also serious about being hungry for once.

"Alright," he said reluctantly. "You may have a snack while you finish editing."

He produced a slab of chocolate from his bag and put it on her desk.

Raven's eyes widened, the pain momentarily forgotten as she sprang from her chair and hugged him. Eeth was not big on luxuries and given she was a poor eater, he didn't let her have stuff like this often. "Thanks, you're the best!" And at that moment, Eeth really was.

Eeth gave her a brief smile. "Finish up here and come see me when you are done," he said. "I will help the others with dinner."

* * *

It was another twenty minutes or so before Raven entered the galley looking slightly sheepish, datapad and stylus tucked under her arm and something brown smudged across her tunic.

"I'm done." She didn't say as much, but her expression was clearly pleading that he agree!

"Let me take a look at your work," Eeth said mildly. "If it is satisfactory, you may stop. And change your shirt before dinner. Inexplicably, it seems to have been stained with chocolate."

Raven waited for Eeth to sit and sat down beside him, leaning her head into his arm. Had Endal not been around, she might have rubbed her ass, but instead, she did her best to act like nothing had happened.

Eeth gave her a brief smile and patted her head twice. Then he picked up the datapad and went over Raven's work.

"This," he said, "might not be as perfect as Endal's solution, but it is your own. And it is essentially correct, although there are two minor mistakes. If Master Drkai has no objections, I would like you to go over it together with Endal after dinner and see if he finds them and the two of you can put them right. Just so you see what kind of cooperation had really been intended by us when we asked you to work on your assignments together."

"Sure," said Endal, throwing his master a questioning look.

Drkai brought a steaming pot of mashed kagga to the table and sat it on a trivet. "I think that's a wonderful idea," she said, although she noticed that Raven didn't exactly look impressed by it.

"If you say so." Raven sighed and stood. Typically, Eeth would offer some healing after a paddling yet so far he had not. So, she sent him an inquiry across their bond.

"Later," Eeth sent her through their bond. He thought that sitting through dinner on a sore bottom might just help reinforce the lesson. Out loud, he said, "Dinner is ready, padawan. Please get changed quickly so we can eat."

Later? Raven huffed. Well, at least later was better than never. She acquiesced and went to do as he had said.

After dinner, Drkai was called away by a message that came through, and so she left Eeth to organise their padawans. Eeth placed the two padawans at the table in the galley to go over Raven's astrophysics assignment. Raven had made a miscalculation at one point and a logical error at another, but after having set her mind to the assignment, she had basically managed to make sense of it. Endal was careful not to point out her mistakes and correct them for her, which would have taken no more than a few minutes, but took the longer way of making her check her steps and find the mistakes herself. The calculation error was easy to correct; the logical error required some explanation. Unfortunately, Endal was really not very good at explaining. What should have been a matter of seconds, or so he had thought, turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle.

"You cannot do it like that because you, well, you, you, you just can't!" he exclaimed. "It's like dividing by zero, it's not possible. See?"

Raven did not, and Endal did not quite know what else to do, other than just give her the right solution.

At this point, Eeth intervened.

Sitting down next to Raven, he explained: "Some forces only work one way. Gravity means that objects are pulled towards objects with a larger mass. You cannot reverse that force. Look here."

He explained the step she had made and why it was wrong, slowly and patiently. After seeing the blank look on her face, he explained it a second time, even more slowly and patiently. He then asked her to rephrase it in her own words until he was sure she had understood. And then he helped her find out what solution would work.

"Good," he said, standing up. "Now you may write it down and Endal can check whether you are doing it right."

Putting a hand on Endal's shoulder, he told the boy: "You need to learn to put yourself in someone else's place and think the way they do. Not everyone is a genius at astrophysics. When explaining things to others, you have to avoid the mental shortcuts that you are used to taking. That can be hard, but it will be a good exercise, for many things. Diplomacy, among others."

"Yes, Master Eeth," Endal said, a little embarrassed at his failure to make the matter comprehensible to Raven, but accepting the advice as sound. He enjoyed diplomatic activities, but he also knew that diplomacy required many skills that he still lacked.

Ten minutes later, they were finally finished, and Eeth declared the rest of the evening free time.

Given that his master was still holed up in their quarters dealing with her message, Endal looked to Raven. "What would you like to do?" Endal asked Raven. "What do you usually do when you have free time?"

"Depends on my mood. Mostly, when stuck in a starship for an inhumanely long time" – Raven turned to make sure Eeth wasn't listening to her complaining and then continued – "it's holo games. On our trip to Nar Shaddaa we had no space for any of the really good games, but there was a treadmill tucked behind a door which had this amazing Wookiee program on it." Raven didn't think that was Endal's kind of thing, though, and so she gave a shrug. "Sim Swords and combat simulators are also fun. What do you like to do?" Because Raven was pretty sure her idea of fun wasn't going to mesh with Endal's tired-out muscles, and she really wanted to do something that they both enjoyed.

"We can try one of the combat simulations, but I'm not going to be much competition for you," said Endal. "I haven't really checked out the entertainment options, you know?" He opened a cupboard door and took out a few items at random. "3D chess? Probably not your kind of thing. Woods of Jurka? 'Solve a murder mystery on an unexplored planet. Multiplayer options included.' What do you think?"

They decided on a combat sim game to begin with. When that got too much for Endal, whose limbs were still aching from the morning's workout, they switched to Woods of Jurka. By the time Eeth and Drkai entered their common room, both padawans were feeling as if they got a break from the boredom of space travel.

"Time to break it up," said Eeth.

"But we just made it to the final part!" both Endal and Raven protested.

"Then you'll have to take that stage up again tomorrow," countered Drkai. "It's nine o'clock, scoot."

Raven was gone in the blink of an eye, but Endal was much slower to rise and he actually groaned as he did so.

Drkai frowned. "What on Hoth did they get up to tonight?" she asked Eeth when both their apprentices were out of earshot.

"I think these are the repercussions of our earlier workout," said Eeth. "I really drove him quite hard. His muscles are not used to it. Are you able to provide him with healing?" Eeth himself was a gifted healer but not all Jedi were.

"No, I'm dreadful at anything more than headaches," Drkai admitted. "But I've heard that you are not. Would you mind expending a bit of your energy for Endal? I'd be grateful if you could." No doubt, so would Endal. Force-aided healing was more effective than holosprays and muscle relaxants, after all.

"I would not mind at all," said Eeth. "Let me look after Raven first. I will be with you in ten minutes."

"I can take care of Raven for you," offered Drkai, thinking it only fair.

Eeth considered this for a moment. "Thank you," he finally said, "but I would rather do it myself at this point. Raven tends to be jealous of the attention Endal is receiving from me. Unwarranted though this might be, I would rather make sure she knows I am still there for her, as long as it is practical."

He entered the room he shared with Raven and asked his apprentice, who was just pulling on her nightshirt, "Will you need healing in order to be able to sleep?"

Raven lifted her nightshirt. Her ass was still a bit pink but bruising was unlikely; the light paddle Eeth carried around could pack a mean punch but it rarely left serious bruises. "No, master. That doesn't mean that you didn't do a good enough job and you need to improve on your efforts or anything. Just saying." At this point it had been several hours after the fact, and although she'd squirmed for most of that time, her ass had begun to forgive her a while ago now.

"Oh, if you do something like this again, I will definitely improve on my efforts," said Eeth drily. "For now, I need to provide Endal with some healing. His muscles are sore. If I want him to be able to work out tomorrow, he will need some help. When I am back, we will meditate together."

Raven's face fell for a fleeting moment upon hearing that Eeth was going to spend time with Endal, but she was fast to cover it. There was no reason to feel jealous because Endal was hurting, and she wanted Eeth to help him.

Eeth was glad he had chosen to decline Drkai's offer because there was no mistaking the fact that Raven was trying valiantly to squash another flash of jealousy. "I will be back as soon as I can," he said gently and left to look after Endal.

As he entered the room shared by Drkai and Endal, the female Jedi master rose, nodded at Eeth and left the room quietly, wanting to give Eeth and Endal some privacy.

"Your muscles seem to be quite sore," said Eeth. "I would like to offer some healing. This will enable you to sleep, and you will be in shape for another workout tomorrow."

"Yeah, my master told me," said Endal, who had only just finished changing into his pyjamas. "Thanks. How do you want me?"

"Lie down on your belly and relax," said Eeth. Endal nodded and complied.

Eeth started with Endals legs. With gentle fingers, he lightly kneaded the sore muscles, letting a steady stream of healing energy flow into them.

"I am afraid," he said while he worked, "that it will get worse for a while before it gets better. You are in bad physical shape, and your body protests all the exercise. The only way to resolve this is by improving your physical condition. My methods might seem harsh to you, but conquering your own shortcomings and transgressing your limitations is what being a Jedi is about. If you are not ready to do it on your own, you will need to be pushed. Much the same is true for my apprentice where her academic lessons are concerned. You are doing her no favours by helping her the way you did tonight."

"I know," Endal said humbly. "And I'm really sorry. I won't do it again. I hope I will still be able to help her, though. Tonight, we just… well, to be honest, we spent too much time talking and when we realised we were running out of time, it seemed like the only solution."

"It was not," Eeth said firmly, "and I hope you saw how bad a solution it was, too. Admitting to the fact that you got caught up in talking and neglected to finish your work would have earned Raven a scolding, some more schoolwork, and maybe an additional meditation at most. Cheating is in a totally different league."

"Well, yeah," said Endal. "To be honest, we were hoping not to get caught."

"You will find," said Eeth, "that few things escape my attention. Counting on not being caught might not be a good strategy."

He moved to work on Endal's back, then his arms.

"Done," he finally said. "Now get some sleep so you can continue improving your physical condition tomorrow."

Endal groaned. "Oh joy," he said in resignation. Sitting up slowly, he noticed that the strain on his muscles had lessened significantly.

"Thank you, Master Eeth," he said gratefully. "I feel lots better."

"You are welcome," said Eeth with a small smile. "Good night."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks for sticking with us in these crazy times and especially for writing reviews. We always love to hear from you, and we sincerely hope that all of you stay safe! One of us was ill for two weeks (not with covid-19) but it still slowed us down a bit. Right now, both of us are spending our time in self-isolation and have more time than usual to devote to role-playing. That might change any time, of course.

In this chapter, our padawans find a lot of trouble and have to live with the (painful) consequences. The long spaceship trip is getting to them. If you feel this is a bit much, take heart: Once they arrive on Arkuna, there will be more action and more variety. Which doesn't mean that Endal and Raven won't continue getting into trouble, of course. That would simply be too boring for us. ;)

Have fun! As always, we love to hear from you.

* * *

The week of spaceship travel went about as smoothly as could be expected considering there wasn't exactly a lot to do while stuck in hyperspace. Both Endal and Raven applied themselves to their duties, although it was not without some effort. Raven, in particular, was becoming restless and chafing at the constant confinement, not to mention all the classwork and, ugh, Drkai and her stupid ant project which had replaced the "spiders"!

"Hey, are you in there?" Drkai asked, snapping her fingers in front of Raven's face to regain her attention. "I said concentrate. You're not even trying. Do it again, please," the woman admonished and pointed to the small dish of ants currently expanding their empire and planning a hostile takeover of their entire ship.

"I AM trying," Raven snapped, but it really had no bite to it; she could do better, and they both knew it.

Drkai simply frowned at her charge. So far that had seemed to do the trick whenever Raven gave her an attitude. But apparently, this time it was not to be.

"There are just too many of them, and it's, it's stupid. When will I ever need to control this many ants? Who even cares about ants, anyway?" In truth, Raven did care about the ants; an overabundance of compassion and empathy for life, regardless of what form it took, was something that had gotten her into trouble more than once.

"I know it's hard, but you can do this. Focus, concentrate," Drkai encouraged. Drkai could understand Raven's frustration. She also knew that for a fidgety personality such as Raven's, this was not only a very long spaceship journey but also advanced Force work that took considerable time, effort and patience to master. Thus, she ignored what was obviously a lie and corralled the ants back into their dish so they might begin again.

Raven just wanted to cry. She knew better, though, and so she gave it another shot.

When it failed, yet again, and Drkai offered encouragement to do it over, the padawan folded her arms defiantly and refused. "No!"

"No?" Drkai cocked a brow.

"NO! I don't care! I'm not doing this again. All we've done in two days is look at these stupid ants; I'm SICK of ANTS!"

"And I'm sick of your attitude," countered Drkai. She stood, taking Raven by the upper arm as she did so and pulling the padawan to her feet. Easy-going Drkai might be, but outright disobedience and defiance was something she would not stand for.

The next thing Raven knew, she was staring at the floor, hands on her knees and Drkai's arm wrapped about her waist. Alright, so this was unambiguous. Raven knew what was about to go down and, like most Jedi apprentices, would not fight correction. Thus, she hung her head and waited. What followed, although humiliating, was not really that painful, not really. Sure, it smarted, but Drkai's hand over layers of her tunic, trousers and underpants felt more like an uncomfortable massage. Raven counted her blessings! Force, Eeth was capable of bringing tears to her eyes with just a few swats of his hand if he had a mind to! Drkai's swing was nothing like that.

After the tenth had landed, however, it did actually smart. Not enough to draw more than a grunt of discomfort from Raven, but still… She stood stiffly, eyes downcast and hands at her sides.

"Look at me," Drkai ordered, and this time Raven obeyed her. "Nobody said this was going to be easy. You have the skill, you only lack the motivation. I won't let that stand in your way." Drkai thought that she had already made that mistake once with her own padawan, and it was never going to happen again.

Suitably subdued, Raven knelt for what felt like the hundredth time this hour and worked until Drkai was satisfied with her effort. It took longer than expected, but she was not about to compound her problems with further misbehaviour.

"Are you going to tell Eeth about, well, about… " She trailed off, looking positively pained as she helped clean up their work area.

Drkai could guess what Raven was asking, and she did feel for her, not that she let on. "No, I won't tell your master because you will do that yourself. It goes without saying that he'd expect to hear about this from you."

"You're right," Raven agreed. "But, if you could just tell Eeth that you've dealt with it and that there is no need for further correction, I would be your best friend for the rest of my life!"

"Oh?" Drkai had to chuckle at this. She snapped the lid shut on the ant terrarium and put an arm around Raven's shoulder. "I don't think that will spare you. However, how about you promise to do your best in our lessons and I'll tell him the truth: you have been punished enough."

Raven grinned and indeed, they had a deal.

* * *

Endal fared little better that day. Generally, Eeth now went slightly easier on him than during their first workout; that one had been meant to show him that he was able to push his limits. Still, Eeth worked the boy plenty hard enough, switching between kata, sparring and exercises meant to enhance his agility, endurance and strength. Endal made a real effort, but he was beginning to feel frustrated. His arms and legs seemed to become sorer every day and he felt as if he was never going to improve. He had mastered the moves of the fourth kata now, but instead of leading him on to the fifth, Eeth kept focusing on the details of the fourth. It was tedious work and that only increased Endal's frustration. After Eeth had corrected his grip on his saber for the tenth time, he heaved an exasperated sigh and dropped his arms.

"Can't we do something else?" he asked, giving Eeth a pleading look.

"No," Eeth said curtly. "Do it again."

Endal heaved another sigh and lifted his saber again, not caring particularly how he did it.

"Is that better?" he asked in a long-suffering voice.

Instead of an answer, Eeth divested him of his saber neatly with nothing but a precise kick of his foot.

"Ouch!" Endal cried indignantly, nursing his left hand and giving Eeth a reproachful look.

"I think," Eeth said sternly, "that your attitude leaves a lot to be desired. I will be happy to change that. March yourself over to that crate over there and bend over."

Endal's eyes widened like saucers.

"Noooo," he said desperately. "I'll work on my grip, I promise! I see what you mean now."

"Good," Eeth said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "You may continue practising tomorrow. Right now, you are going to do as I told you. You will receive two additional swats for trying to argue your way out of it. And when we are done, you may spend the rest of the session climbing the ropes. I know how much you like them."

Endal's jaw practically dropped to the ground at that, but he hurried to obey.

Eight scorching swats with the paddle later, he was sore and tearful and forced to climb up and down the ropes for another half hour until Eeth finally sent him off to take a shower. Needless to say, it was a less than happy padawan who stormed into the thankfully deserted room he shared with Drkai, grabbed a towel and stomped into the refresher in a rare fit of bad temper.

Eeth let him be and went to the galley to prepare lunch, which was where Drkai and Raven found him a few minutes later when they had finished their own lesson.

Drkai glanced towards the galley door which led to their quarters. She could sense Endal's frustration and could only imagine what had caused it. Despite wanting to know what had happened, Drkai refrained from asking Eeth about this for now. Endal would tell her himself. She washed her hands in the sink and pulled a couple of glasses from the cupboard. Over the last few days, some rehydration fluids had helped her padawan after these sessions.

Raven gave Drkai a last pleading look, which was met with a raised brow as the woman dropped two effervescent pills into the first glass of water. Not quite sure how to raise this topic, Raven went for something a bit safer. "How did it go with Endal?" she asked Eeth, picking up a knife and casually twirling it between her fingers.

"That is none of your business," said Eeth mildly. "How was your session with Master Drkai?"

"None of your business, either," replied Raven, looking affronted by his rude answer.

Eeth raised his eyebrows and gave her a pointed look. "Your lessons, padawan, _are_ my business," he said. He had the feeling he had offended Raven somehow but he was not quite sure what he had done wrong.

Raven's posture stiffened, and she eyeballed Eeth. She was about to open her mouth to say something that would have undoubtedly ended up in shit hitting the fan when Drkai spoke up. "I assume," she said, swirling the dissolving pills around in the glass, "that Endal's lesson did not go all that well, and maintaining Endal's privacy was the reason for your master's reluctance to answer your question." Drkai turned to Eeth. "The question was simple politeness, Eeth. And speaking of lessons, why don't you answer your master now," Drkai said, the attention returned to Raven.

Placated, Raven dropped the indignant expression and now looked a little sheepish – as did Eeth, which was a rather rare occurrence! He had indeed wanted to protect Endal's privacy but he had not at all been aware that his reaction might come across as rude, which it apparently had. The fact that Drkai had understood this immediately did not exactly make things better!

"Master Luthan is right," he said, striving to hide his moment of embarrassment. "My reply had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Endal, who should decide for himself if he wants to tell you how today's lesson went. Now tell me about yours."

Raven understood that, and although decidedly unenthusiastic about enlightening Eeth on her own lesson issues today, she did obey him. "Well, our lesson went okay for the most part. But I might have been a little less patient than I should have." She went on to explain how she had gotten frustrated and refused to continue when Drkai ordered her to. "Master Luthan punished me already, though, and it really, really hurt." Raven thought it best to add that in for good measure.

Drkai clicked her tongue at Raven's elaboration. "The punishment fit the crime, nothing more and nothing less."

"Uh, but it did hurt." Raven knew that Eeth rarely added to another master's punishment unless they specifically asked him to. Her problem was that Drkai's spanking hadn't actually hurt much at all, and she didn't want that coming out because Force knew if he would think she needed more or not! More was to be avoided at all costs.

Eeth could smell a lie from his padawan a mile away, and he wasn't impressed. He pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat down.

"Padawan," he said in an ominous tone of voice, "bare your bottom, get over my knee and show me how badly you were hurt. Or tell me the truth. You have ten seconds to make a choice, or I will make it for you."

"Wait, let's not be hasty here!" exclaimed Raven. "Master Luthan really did spank me, but maybe I exaggerated a bit on how much it hurt. It did hurt, though, I felt it," she tacked on just in case he thought that she had felt nothing at all from the ordeal. By this point, Raven was wondering what would be worse, having to show him her ass or being caught out in a lie. Well, was it really a lie? Raven didn't think so, it was more of an exaggeration.

"I see," said Eeth sternly. He was not particularly concerned with Raven's brief episode of defiance in her lesson; after all, Drkai had dealt with it and Raven seemed to have followed orders in the end. He saw no need to add to the consequences imposed by Drkai. But Raven's attempt to deceive him about the punishment she had received from Drkai, just so he was lenient in his own reaction, was not something he was going to tolerate.

"Padawan," he said, "during this mission, two masters will be responsible for you. You might be tempted, at times, to exploit that fact to your own advantage. Do not give in to that temptation. It will only turn out all the worse for you."

He rose from his chair, grabbed Raven's ear and, ignoring her protests, he dumped her over his lap. Pulling down her pants and underwear to her knees, he found, true to his suspicions, that her bottom was entirely unblemished, not even a slight shade of pink.

"Right," he said in a deceptively mild tone of voice. "It seems as if you were not all that badly hurt after all. Let me show you what a spanking that 'really, really hurts' feels like."

At this point, Raven started panicking. "No, master, don't! I'm sorry! Wait, WAIT!" but it was too late. A second later, Eeth's hand came crashing down onto her bottom at full force, leaving a dark pink imprint in its wake. The process was immediately repeated on her other cheek, this one drawing a tearful attempt at yet another apology from Raven.

Drkai left the galley to the sound of Raven begging and Eeth's hand answering. She couldn't exactly blame Eeth; Raven had tried to play them. When Drkai entered her quarters, the shower was running, steam rising from around the door. She set the glass on Endal's bedside table and sat on her own bed to unbraid her hair. Drkai's dark blonde hair was long, thick and, when unbraided, hung low around a bald head of horns. She was lithe for a Zabrak, and the traditional facial tattoos she had chosen at the time of her rite were tasteful, accentuating her high cheekbones and pointed jawline.

When Endal left the shower, he found his master waiting for him in their room.

"Hi master," he said, a tad sullenly, making a beeline for his clothes. "I don't know if Master Eeth told you, but I'm probably supposed to. He paddled me because he thought I had an attitude. Just because I cannot do anything right doesn't mean I have an attitude!"

"Hi yourself," said Drkai, having taken in that assessment. She stopped brushing out her braids as he finished speaking. It would appear that it was not only Raven who was having a rough day.

"I doubt Master Koth would punish you for pulling an attitude if you did not deserve it," she said. "I am also certain that he would not be pleased to hear you say that you cannot do anything right. You do many things right. And you know what? I don't want to hear it either. We've long since proven that you are more than capable if you put your mind to it."

Endal was not typically prone to having fits of temper. But he had been driven hard by Eeth for a week now and, being at the threshold of adolescence, he found it increasingly difficult to tolerate being controlled by adults all the time. Drkai's words pushed him over the edge. He flung his tunic against the wall and, since that didn't make any kind of satisfactory sound, let one of his boots follow.

"Why can't I say it if it's true?" he raged. "We both know I'm not talking astrophysics or Huttese here, I'm talking about my saber training. How can you say that I'm capable when you weren't even there? You should hear Eeth! 'You are holding your saber wrong,'" he mimicked in a fairly good imitation of Eeth's voice. "'Grip it like this. Put your left hand there. Now hold your thumb like this. No, not like this, like that. You are forgetting about your left hand. You are still doing it wrong. Look, I just kick your saber and whoopsie, it's gone. No, we are not going to move on to the fifth kata 'cause you are still holding - YOUR - FREAKING - SABER - WRONG!' AWWGH!"

Endal stomped over to the wall, grabbed his tunic, pulled it over his head and stormed towards the door. He was half embarrassed at his show of temper, but currently, the other half, which was simply furious with Eeth, with himself, with his master and the world in general, was winning over.

That Endal was frustrated was not entirely unexpected to Drkai given that she had sensed as much from the galley, yet neither was she willing to tolerate this sort of attitude from him. "Control your temper and come here," she ordered, but she wasn't sure verbal commands were going to be enough this time. Endal was, quite possibly for the first time in their relationship, really losing his temper.

Endal was sick and tired of being told off and being ordered around. He wasn't used to it, and today, it just seemed to frustrate him to no end. If he had watched himself from a distance, he would have been surprised at his own cheek. Right now, however, he was too caught up in his tantrum to care. He simply waved the door open and stalked out into the corridor, fuming.

Drkai blinked as the door slid shut and Endal was no longer in the room. Sure, he had disobeyed her in the past, but generally speaking, these had been minor issues that could be easily talked out and dealt with. This time, it seemed as if Endal was allowing his temper to override his better judgement, which was entirely unacceptable. It took her a few seconds to work through that thought process and get to her feet.

Five seconds later, Drkai had Endal by his arm, and she pulled him up short. Turning him to face her, she bent so that they were eye to eye. "If I tell you to do something, you will do it. You won't ignore my instructions, ever. Now, you will return to our quarters and meditate on releasing your emotions into the Force. I will help if you want me to, but you will do it. Is that understood, padawan?" Drkai was not angry, yet neither was she willing to accept anything other than compliance and it showed in her expression.

Even in the throes of a temper tantrum, Endal's defiance had its limits. He stared at his master for two seconds, processing what she had said, and ground out: "Yes, master."

When she let go of his arm, he turned wordlessly, stomped back to the cabin, threw his meditation mat on the floor and sat down on it cross-legged in bad grace.

However, it was hard to sustain a tantrum for long while meditating. The reasonable part of himself was starting to win out, and that part was telling him he ought to be ashamed of his behaviour. He did not even know what had gotten into him, really. He just had never felt this frustrated before. Of course, he also had never been forced to work this hard on his physical skills before, and neither had he ever spent more than two days on a spaceship.

Given that Endal had not taken her up on the offer to meditate together, Drkai let him be and went to their bathroom to splash her face. The cold water felt good, so she did it a few times and then organised their laundry while she was here. When she sensed that Endal had once again found his calm centre, Drkai took a seat on his bunk. "Alright, enough of that now," she interrupted gently. When he looked at her, she patted the bed indicating that he come sit and handed him the glass or rehydrating fluids. "Let's try this again. Come and tell me what this is all about. Calmly and respectfully this time."

Endal sighed and took a sip, sitting in the spot his master had indicated. He was under no illusions that his master was thrilled with his behaviour. Nor was he, come to think of it. He had no idea what had gotten into him.

"I'm sorry, master," he said dejectedly. "I didn't mean to shout at you. I guess I was just frustrated. It currently seems to me as if the lessons with Master Koth aren't going anywhere and nothing I do is ever good enough."

"It can sometimes feel that way. In this case, the positive feedback I've received from Master Koth and the improvements I see in you myself don't support your claim. You allowed your frustrations to take over, which is understandable. We are not infallible or unfeeling, yet more is expected from us as Jedi than from others. I expect more from you, which is why, although I accept your apology, I won't stand for tantrums or disobedience when you have alternative outlets." Drkai gestured to his meditation mat.

Endal threw up his hands in frustration.

"I said I'm sorry," he said. "What else should I say? I don't even know why I suddenly threw a tantrum. I certainly didn't for Master Eeth. I only asked him whether we couldn't do something else and there he goes and starts paddling me. He might have given positive feedback to you, but that was not what he gave to me." He knew that this was not entirely fair because Eeth had praised him several times – not frequently but it had happened nearly every session. Not today, though.

"You should say that you will do better at controlling your emotions in future," said Drkai. "You might also add that although you did not receive the feedback or praise you wanted from Eeth today, it's no excuse to give less than your best effort, lose your temper, or disobey me. Given that you seem to be having trouble coming up with proper responses, I'm going to make this easy on you." Drkai stood and, after a brief pause, removed her lightsaber and pulled off her belt. "Trousers down and bend over your bed."

Endal's eyes widened in shock. "You can't be serious, master!" he said. "I have enough trouble sitting down as it is! And I said I'm sorry!" He had meant it, too; didn't that count for anything?

"I know you are sorry, padawan, but apologising doesn't excuse you from the consequences of your actions. Losing your temper, throwing a fit and disobeying me is not something I've ever tolerated and I'm not about to start now." Drkai doubled the belt over and took a firm grip. "Do as you're told, please. You don't want me to ask again."

Endal was still staring at his master in disbelief, but he was bright enough to see that arguing was not a particularly sensible option at this point. Biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling, he undid the drawstring of his pants and let them slide to his knees. He then shuffled up to the bed, turned around reluctantly and bent over, placing his hands on the mattress. He did not want to bend any lower than that because, while he had never been spanked with a belt before, he was quite certain that it was not going to be fun.

Wordlessly, Drkai put the belt aside for a moment, pulled Endal's underwear to his knees and then gently pushed him down so that he was lying over the edge of his bed. Ultimately this would be easier on him, not that she expected he'd recognise the reprieve. As anticipated, Endal's backside showed signs of the paddling he had spoken of, and although it had not been a token punishment, nor was it enough to warrant a change in plans. Thus, Drkai picked up her belt, took up a position at his side and, without further preamble, landed the first lick low on his bottom, neatly avoiding the worst of Eeth's paddling. She wasn't using her full strength, but it was surely going to be enough to get Endal's attention.

And get his attention it did! He flinched as the stroke hit his bottom. Force, but it stung! Endal knew he would not be able to stay silent for many more of these; his bottom was already sore to start with, after all. "Master, I'm sorry!" he said desperately in a last-second attempt at damage control. "I shouldn't have lost my temper!"

"I know," Drkai said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "And I'm going to make sure that you remember this the next time you feel the urge to lose your temper and disobey me." With that, Drkai focused on meting out a belting that would indeed fulfil that statement. The second lick landed just below the first, catching Endal's undercurve. The third targeted the backs of his upper thighs, leaving three pink lines.

Endal just about managed to stay silent during those first three, although he flinched at each stroke and wriggled around in a futile attempt to alleviate the sting. The third elicited a hiss of pain, and as the next set landed directly above the first, he could not suppress his cries.

"OUCH!" he yelped. "OWWW! Master, please, it hurts! OWWWWWW!"

Tears were stinging the corners of his eyes. He braced himself for the next round, knowing that he would not be able to withhold them much longer.

Drkai knew it hurt, yet she still meted out that last set of three even though Endal started crying at the seventh. Only when the full nine licks had been given did Drkai put the belt aside and sit beside him. His body was still shaking from his sobs, so she gently patted his back to offer some comfort while he got himself under control.

Endal accepted the comfort readily. He knew his behaviour had been out of line. He just wished he had been able to stop himself sooner! Finally, and with an effort, he managed to stop crying and straighten up. He reached back with one hand to massage his burning bottom but flinched at the touch; that had been a bad idea. "I'm sorry, master," he sniffled, groping unsuccessfully for a handkerchief in the pocket of his tunic.

Drkai deftly removed the handkerchief from his tunic pocket for him and offered it, her arm encircling his back and pulling him close. "Apology accepted, padawan." She held him while he swiped at his face and blew his nose, all the while scanning him through the Force. He was suffering, yes, but not unfairly so.

Endal leaned into his master's side. "Sorry," he repeated softly. "I'll try to do better."

"That's enough of that now," Drkai said gently. "I have accepted your apology. I also believe you when you say that you will do better." Drkai had corrected his phrasing with a slight smile but without a trace of condescension to her tone. When Endal seemed ready to leave her comfort, she reached up and thumbed a stray tear from his cheek. "Go wash your face and then come back to me."

Endal nodded mutely and moved to comply.

* * *

As Drkai comforted Endal, Eeth did the same with Raven, wondering whether there was something in the air that caused apprentices to misbehave or whether it was simply the length of this trip that was getting to them. He held Raven in a hug while she had her face buried in his tunic and was sniffling quietly.

"Padawan," said Eeth. "I would like to make one thing clear. This spanking was not for your misbehaviour in Master Drkai's lesson. Had you confessed to me honestly what happened, I would have let you off with a warning not to misbehave for her again. However, you deliberately lied to me, wanting to make the spanking you received appear much worse than it was. That was dishonest towards me. What is more, you accepted the risk of giving me a false impression of Master Drkai's actions. Most importantly, it was an attempt to play the two of us off against each other, to manipulate us. I do not take kindly to being manipulated. You would do well to remember that."

Raven cringed a little more as Eeth made each point. He was right: she had lied to him, hoping to lessen any punishment he might deem necessary, and hadn't thought about how that might reflect on Drkai.

"You're right," Raven said after a long pause. She stood so that he could see her face, tear-streaked, bleary-eyed and pink. "I'm sorry, master, it w-won't happen again." Raven was trying her best to do what she knew was expected of her, yet Eeth had not lied when he'd told her that this spanking was really going to hurt. It had, and it was taking some time for her to regain composure.

"Apology accepted," said Eeth, his voice softening a little. "Before lunch, you will offer an apology to Master Luthan as well. Right now, you will kindly join me in the training room. You may do your homework in the training time assigned to us this afternoon. You need to blow off some steam, and I will give you the opportunity to do so."

He did not consider this a punishment the way it would have been for Endal, but he still intended to put Raven through her paces. Besides, as a matter of fact, he needed to blow off some steam as well. The session with Endal had been frustrating for both student and teacher, not that Eeth had let this on.

"But, I already apologised to Master Luthan," Raven replied, dragging a hand under her nose despite having been given a handkerchief.

"Padawan, use your handkerchief," Eeth snapped, getting immediate compliance. He waited for her to finish blowing her nose and continued, "You might have apologised to Master Luthan for your defiance but you have not apologised for your dishonesty and attempt at manipulation. Will you do so, preferably without further backtalk?"

Raven's hesitation to apologise wasn't anything to do with pride, and everything to do with the shame she felt over having to confess to Drkai that she'd tried to manipulate them! Still, there was no way that Raven was going to argue with Eeth over anything right now, and so she lowered her gaze and nodded curtly. Besides, Raven knew that whatever Eeth had planned for her during this workout could always turn into something she hated, should she push him.

Eeth led Raven towards the training room and waved the door shut behind them. "Alright, padawan," he said. "Your task is simple. I want you to catch me, that is, to touch me with your hand. No lightsabers. Whether you manage to catch me or not, you will not give up before I give you leave to do so. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master." Raven was no quitter, but she was sceptical about her ability to actually catch Eeth, even inside this relatively small area. She looked around the room, found several places that might work for her size but not his, and took a deep breath. This was probably going to be a gruelling, ultimately unsuccessful session, yet Raven was up for it.

And Eeth expected nothing less than her best effort! Not letting himself get caught in the relatively confined space of the training room was not going to be an easy feat to accomplish, especially as Raven was very quick and agile. And that suited Eeth fine. He still was not back to the physical shape he thought he should be in, and he needed some vigorous exercise every day.

For the first twenty minutes, he had his hands full trying to escape his apprentice, climbing ropes and jumping them, flipping over crates and dodging her. Then he felt her slow down. "I haven't given you leave to stop," he barked, glaring down at her from the rope from which he was currently dangling. "Faster."

Raven didn't have the breath to verbally defend herself. She did, however, possess an admirable level of tenacity when it came to physical training. Thus, she gritted her teeth and, in a burst of Force energy, rebounded off the wall and launched herself onto the rope. Eeth was barely a meter above her now, and so she started climbing. Unfortunately, Eeth was fast and practically impossible to grab hold of; just when she could all but feel the fabric of his tunic in her fingers, he was gone. Well, that just made her more determined, and a second later, she was on his tail once again.

Eeth let her chase him around the training room for ten more minutes. Then he finally allowed her to catch him. He was starting to become slightly out of breath, which would not have happened before his disease, but that was nothing compared to his padawan.

Relieved at having finally succeeded, Raven leant forward trying to catch her breath. However, without giving her more than a few seconds of respite, Eeth ordered: "Now you run and I try to catch you. Off you go."

"Wait, two, seconds, please," Raven panted, wiping sweat from her forehead with a sleeve.

"Run," Eeth barked. "You were the one who had trouble sitting still during her lessons. Go on, what are you waiting for?"

At first, Raven took a few tentative steps back to see if Eeth would do anything. However, when she saw his muscles bunch to spring, Raven blurred across the room, vaulted off the stack of crates Endal had created for aerials and leapt onto a small ledge that jutted out around the ceiling. Immediately, she turned to scan the room, her senses stretching out to attempt getting a read on him. That was a mistake because in the second it took her to do so, Eeth had caught up with her and grabbed her by the ankle. "Do not stop to turn around," he said. "It will cost you time you do not have. Try again. The Force will lead you if you do not stop to think."

The second Eeth released her foot, Raven leapt from the ledge, hoping to catch the rope that hung mid-room and make it to the ground in two neat manoeuvres. It was an impulsive, dangerous move that Raven doubted Eeth would anticipate; entirely the point! The rope was thick, and her hands slipped yet she hung on long enough to fling herself to the ground. The landing was good but one of the crates had moved slightly (probably due to either Eeth or herself using it as a springboard), and she was forced to make a split-second decision: take it out, or be taken out. Raven chose the former and in the blink of an eye, she had her lightsaber drawn and disappeared through an explosion of splintering crate.

"Stop!" Eeth barked, landing next to her lightly. "Are you alright?" he inquired, brushing splinters from her hair and off her tunic.

Raven nodded, monopolising on the moment of pause to catch her breath. "I'm fine, but the crate has seen better days. I'll clean it up," she offered, stowing her lightsaber once again.

"Later," said Eeth. "After you have explained to me what you thought you were doing here. For now, the damage is done. Go on. In a real-life situation, no one will give you time for a break either." He was not going to stop until Raven had had a workout that would make schoolwork seem like the preferable option to her at least for the afternoon; and considering his apprentice's aptitude for physical exercise and the physical condition she was in, that took something.

"But," Raven didn't get more than that out before Eeth was gone once again. Her nostrils flared, and she took off after him.

Eeth drove her on relentlessly. The only sounds were her panting (and, occasionally, his own), the soft thump of their feet landing after a jump or fall and, in increasing frequency, a clipped: "Faster!" Only when she was starting to stumble, clearly completely exhausted, did he allow her to stop. For a long round of stretching exercises. Those were never exactly fun, but necessary after such a strenuous workout, and Force knew he needed them as much as she did; he was still dissatisfied with his agility and flexibility after his illness.

"Alright," he finally said. "Now would you care to explain what you thought you were doing when you destroyed that crate?"

"I was trying to throw you off, but I came down too fast. It was me or the crate." That workout had been the hardest to date. Almost as hard as the evening, or more like the morning, after she had remained awake and focused for most of the night building her lightsaber. After that, Eeth had forced her to fight with it until Raven had started stumbling and failing. She looked up at him. "I'll clean it up." Raven looked as if she would pass out the moment he gave her leave to, though.

"Yes, please go ahead and do so," said Eeth. "You need to work on your focus. I grant you that you are worth more than the crate but next time, try to avoid situations where you have to make that choice in the first place. I did not start this exercise so you would wreck the gym."

Raven sighed. She had hoped that Eeth would wave her off and send her away. Still, she stood, stretched out and got to work cleaning up the mess she'd made. It was only fair. When the remnants of the crate were piled into a tidy heap, Raven summoned a cleaning droid to finish the job. Then she dragged herself back to their quarters. There was steam coming from their bathroom and so Raven collapsed onto her bed, curled into a ball and, despite her general discomfort, proceeded to fall asleep.

Eeth, of course, would have none of this. When he emerged from the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist, and found Raven sleeping, he frowned.

"Padawan, get up," he said, shaking her awake. "Take a shower and get dressed. I will prepare lunch in the meantime."

"No, master. Please, just let me sleep for half an hour. Just half an hour." Raven knew that Eeth didn't like whining, but damn it, she was tired and sore and her bed had never felt more comfortable.

"You may go to bed early tonight," said Eeth mercilessly. "For now, you have duties to perform. If I hear any more whining, I will take you back to the gym and repeat this workout."

"Not even you would be that mean." The comment had been meant as a joke, yet if the look on Eeth's face was anything to go by, her attempt at humour could not have been more ill-timed. "I mean, yes, master, I'll go shower." And Raven was gone in a blur.

* * *

The following morning's training session with Eeth filled Endal with considerable apprehension. He tried to accept the paddling he had received yesterday as well-deserved, but it still seemed rather harsh to him and he wondered whether Eeth would jump down his throat for breathing next.

As usual, Eeth motioned for him to take up a position opposite him.

"Padawan Endal," he said solemnly. "You are doubtlessly wondering why I insist on torturing you with tedious details, such as how you place your hands and feet, instead of allowing you to move on, and why I have so little tolerance for your exasperation with those details."

"Uh," Endal stammered, completely taken by surprise. "Umm, to be honest, yes. That, err, crossed my mind."

"Then," Eeth replied crisply, "I will explain. From the fifth kata onward, you will work on increasingly complex manoeuvres, all of which will ultimately play a role in sparring. At some point, hopefully in the not-too-far future, you will build your own lightsaber. You will use it for sparring, and you will have to use it to defend yourself against opponents in real life. No matter what complex attack sequences and flashy aerials you have mastered by then, if an opponent can divest you of your lightsaber as easily as I could yesterday, you will most likely end up dead. I do not want to be responsible for your death by having given in to your impatience and neglected my duty to teach you the fundamentals. Therefore, I will continue to bother you with tedious details and I will not hesitate to paddle you again if your motivation leaves something to be desired. Do we have an understanding?"

Endal's ears were burning with shame at this point. He did not think it was possible to feel any more childish and silly than he did now.

"Yes, Master Eeth," he said quietly. "I am sorry for my attitude. I appreciate the effort you are making with me, I really do. I won't complain again."

"Good," Eeth replied, giving him a small smile. "Now let us get started. Today, we are going to begin with half an hour of exercises for your strength and agility. Then, we will work on refining the fourth kata for another half hour. If I am satisfied with your effort, we will use the remainder of the time to start working on Force pushes."

"Alright," Endal replied, unconvinced. "You know I suck at Force pushes, though, don't you?"

The moment he had said it, he clapped his hand over his mouth, but before he even had the time to utter a meek "sorry", he found himself tucked under Eeth's arm and a paddle applied to his backside. By the time Eeth was done, Endal was rubbing his bottom furiously with his one hand and rubbing tears from his eyes with the other.

Resigned to his fate, he started on the workout Eeth set him, not daring to give anything less than his best effort, with the welcome result that Eeth pronounced himself satisfied with his grip on his saber at last – only to have him work on his stance some more. But after an hour was over, Eeth told Endal to sheathe his saber and to start working on Force pushes, so Endal guessed he had done alright so far.

"May I ask a question, Master Eeth?" he asked as politely as he possibly could while returning his lightsaber to its place on his belt.

"You may always ask questions," Eeth replied. "What is it?"

"I don't mean to be difficult about this," Endal started hesitantly, "but what difference does it make whether I get punished for saying things like I did at the start of our session if I still cannot help thinking them? I mean… you can stop me from saying I suck at one thing or another, but that does not stop me from thinking so."

"Over time, it will," Eeth replied calmly. "Or at least it will help. At first, you will stop short before you say certain things; after a while, the habit becomes ingrained in you and you will stop short before you allow yourself to think them. Of course, you will also need achievements to boost your confidence, but I daresay we will manage to come by those. You have already learned more than you would have thought possible two weeks ago, after all."

"That's true," Endal admitted. "I thought I'd never get past the third kata."

"And yet you did," Eeth said. "I told you that you could master the backflip, and you did. And now I am telling you that you can master Force pushes."

Endal had to grin at that. "Alright, then," he said. "Show me what to do."

The smile Eeth gave him now was probably the most genuine one he had yet seen in the man.

"That," said Eeth, "is the attitude I want to see."


	6. Chapter 6

"Twenty-one, twenty, nineteen, eighteen…" Raven nodded her head once with each mental count. After eight days of spaceship travel THE DOOR WAS FINALLY GOING TO OPEN, and they would all be free to start their mission and explore Arkuna. The trip hadn't been all that bad as Eeth and Drkai had provided activities to keep them from going stir-crazy, but nor had either apprentice managed to avoid trouble.

Of course, Raven knew better than to dash out the door and burst onto an unexplored planet without waiting for Eeth. Still, she could practically smell the grass and feel the wind on her face already. Raven closed her eyes as the hatch took a painfully long time to open and poked her head outside, taking a deep breath. The planet's sun was bright, and there was a cool breeze that smelled clean. They had landed in the middle of a steppe, which meant there was dried grass as far as she could see. "Master?" The single word was spoken with sufficient impatience to clue Eeth in on her eagerness to get off this damned spaceship!

"No," was the predictable answer, and Raven huffed. "We will be with you in a moment and then we will step out together," said Eeth. Endal, who was less antsy than Raven but still decidedly eager to get out, gave her a sympathetic smile.

Raven returned Endal's smile with one of her own and tried to remain patient. She had been working hard on curbing her impulsiveness lately and didn't want to mess it up now.

"Padawan, you and Master Luthan will check the surroundings for life forms," Eeth told Raven as he stepped up behind her, Drkai at his side, and gazed across the plains. "There do not seem to be any in the immediate vicinity, but some predators can be fast. Endal and I will map the surroundings, take holographs and collect plant specimens. It will be sunset in about an hour, so there is no point in setting up camp here. We will sleep on the ship tonight. Tomorrow, we will unload the shuttle and our gear and leave for a different sector. And now, padawan, if you feel like it, you may run. But stay in Master Luthan's line of sight."

"Wahoo!" Raven whooted and was gone in a flash. She blurred to the far side of the grassy plain and glanced back. She was still in their masters' line of sight and was about to take off again when Drkai cleared her throat.

Raven's head whipped around. "Now where the Force did you come from?" she asked, shocked at not having sensed the woman by her side.

"You think you're the only one who needs to blow off some steam?"

Raven grinned. "I guess not." And the two took off together. It was easy to follow Drkai's lead; it was fun, too! They blurred several hundred meters at a time before stopping to stretch out their senses for lifeforms. When they arrived back at their ship, the sky had turned orange and pink. Raven looked at Eeth and then back up at the sky. "This place is amazing. Good for running, too, long and flat," she remarked with a smile.

"Long and flat," agreed Drkai, "and spotted with burrowers. As Raven found out the hard way. Other than this, we came across nothing significant."

Raven coloured very slightly at Drkai's report. "Yeah, that too." She gestured to her torn, dirt-stained trouser leg and shrugged sheepishly. "I suck at detecting inanimate objects, always have. At least I brought a good supply of clothing on this mission."

"Maybe you should work harder at improving your skills, rather than determining that you 'suck'," Eeth said with a hint of disapproval in his voice. "Because if you do not improve them, it might very well turn out to cause you serious problems." For a brief moment, Eeth had a strange feeling, as if a deeper truth was underlying these words. It was too vague to make anything of it, though; maybe it was just his protectiveness conjuring up images of Raven getting hurt. He shook it off and turned towards Drkai.

"Endal said he would prefer to dine outside at a campfire," he said. "If you agree, we will need to bring some provisions and pyrofoam from the ship. I do not think there is any wood to be had around here." Pyrofoam was a material that came in small cubes and burned for hours; it was helpful when there was no other way to keep a fire running, and it was also useful because it did not produce much smoke.

Raven had the foresight not to dispute Eeth's comment. Instead, she nodded and took off into their ship to fetch some pyrofoam. "Heya, lemme help with that," Raven said, having found Endal carrying out some supplies.

"Did you get far? What did you end up doing?" Raven asked him, tucking several packages, including the box of pyrofoam, under her arms.

"Not that far," Endal replied, but he did not sound unhappy about it. "I can't run at Force-enhanced speed yet, after all. And there was no need for it anyway. We collected specimens of grass and practised producing satellite maps. It was fun." Endal was not lying as he said that. He was rather enthusiastic about his job. It was like a science project, and he loved those. He had been quick to pick up the details of his task and was looking forward to what they would find on this world.

Raven was surprised that Endal had not yet learned Force-enhanced speed, but she did not show it. Instead, she focussed on his other comments. Collecting grass specimens didn't exactly sound thrilling to her. Apparently, it had been to Endal and that was all that mattered. She smiled at him and offered to help start the fire. This was a task Raven had not done since her survival class a few years ago, so it was going to be interesting.

Dinner was not exciting; they had nearly run out of fresh food and had to resort to pre-packaged starship food. Still, it was nice sitting around a campfire with a starry sky above them the likes of which could never be seen on Coruscant. It was also becoming chilly very fast, so they retreated to the spaceship after dinner where Eeth forced the reluctant padawans to do some schoolwork for half an hour before setting them to helping pack their things and gear.

They turned in early and rose equally early the next morning. Unloading the shuttle from the starship and packing it with their gear took a couple of hours. When that was finally done, they sealed the spaceship, boarded the shuttle and took off with Drkai in the pilot's seat. They were headed towards a rainforest region to the Southeast. Before they reached it, they would explore the hilly country between the steppe and the rainforest. Today's destination would take about three hours to reach. They would spend tomorrow there and travel on the day after.

Endal was quite content looking out the window and watching the landscape zoom past. Raven, who was sitting next to him, was a different matter. After being imprisoned in a starship for eight days, Raven was none too pleased with finding herself confined yet again. Raven hated long speeder trips, and this one was no exception. She fidgeted and bounced her leg, frowning as the lacklustre landscape whizzed past. "How much longer?" she asked, trying to keep the whine from her tone. It felt like they had been travelling for hours.

"We are halfway there," Eeth replied, giving his padawan a look that held a clear warning. "If you are bored, we may use the trip to practice some Huttese."

Huttese was the one subject in which Raven's skills were at least as good as Endal's and the boy knew it. "Sure," he said readily. "I'm good with grammar and vocabulary, but I haven't had much practice. You must have picked up a lot on that Nar Shaddaa mission you told me about." There was an unmistakable note of envy in his voice.

"Chuba, Masterrrrr. You can't cure boredom by adding classwork, that just makes the boredom even worse!" Raven said, exasperated. "Anyway, you and Master Luthan are both from planets where Huttese is widely spoken. You could show Endal what the Nar Shaddaa variant sounds like." She shot Endal a sideways grin and winked. Besides, hearing her dignified master speak gutter Huttese was amusing.

"Well, if Drkai and I do the talking, you will not have to do anything," Eeth pointed out. "I thought you were bored. Giving you something to do was the whole point of this. But if you like, all four of us could switch to Huttese. How good is yours, Drkai?"

Drkai shrugged. Her Huttese wasn't stellar but she could get by. "Looks like we're playing, then," Drkai said in slightly accented Huttese.

It worked to keep everyone occupied for an hour or so but Raven only knew so much Huttese, and although it was fun listening to Drkai and Eeth banter, it wasn't long before the question popped up again: "Pee wom me DOPEEEEEE?", which was Huttese for: "Are we there YET?!"

Drkai caught Raven's eye in the mirror, amused. "Beeka doe wompa keejecta peedunky," which roughly translated in Basic as "If you ask that one more time, I'm activating your ejector seat."

It took Raven a moment or two to translate it. However, when she eventually did, she had to smile.

"Maybe we could stop for a while," Raven suggested hopefully. Surely she wasn't the only one who wanted a break from sitting.

"Padawan, we have got half an hour left. There is no need to stop now," Eeth said firmly. Already the landscape was beginning to change; the flat and endless steppe gave way to soft hills, bushes, small trees and the occasional creek.

Endal gave Raven a sympathetic look. He was not half as restless as she was, but he could understand the need to stretch one's legs.

"Uh, I have to go, Master Eeth," he claimed. "Really bad."

Eeth's eyebrows rose.

"How gallant of you," he said drily, "to risk being caught in a blatant lie just in order to win your fellow padawan a break."

Endal opened his mouth and closed it again, blushing.

"Uh," he said lamely, shooting Raven an apologetic look that plainly said 'I tried, sorry'. "Well, maybe I don't have to go that badly," he conceded reluctantly.

"I thought so," Eeth replied evenly.

Raven had to give Endal credit for creativity! "Thanks" she whispered, smiling at him. She was kinda impressed, actually.

Half an hour later, they finally arrived, and Raven sprang from the speeder as if it were on fire. "That," she said in her best Nar Shaddaa Huttese, "was horrendous!"

"There will be more shuttle rides in your immediate future than you will care for, padawan," Eeth pointed out. "There is no other way to explore a vast continent. Everyone take some energy bars. They will keep us fed until nightfall when Endal and I will provide dinner. Now please join Drkai and check whether there are any predators around. I will show Endal how to set up the tents and how to analyse the water quality."

They had parked the shuttle in a small flat valley between hills that were overgrown with bushes and small trees. A creek ran through the valley towards a lake they had crossed a little earlier. They had seen a number of animals of various sizes grazing, drinking at the lake or eating the leaves off trees. There had also been a lot of birds around. Broad tracks leading towards the lake indicated that it provided drinking water for many animals. They had avoided such tracks when choosing their camping ground. Still, Endal and Eeth, after some discussion, decided to set up the tents in a small dip near the top of a hill, rather than in the valley, since the likelihood of getting in the way of any local animals was lower up there. The spot also offered a better view of the surroundings. Fortunately, it was not windy. The creek, where their shuttle was parked, was thirty metres below them, but the climb was not very steep.

Setting up the tents took quite a while because Endal kept messing up the poles and lines. Eeth refrained from simply doing it himself, though, because Endal needed to learn. When they were done, Eeth showed the boy how to analyse water quality.

"Water's great," Endal announced after a minute, double-checking the readings. "We won't need to purify it."

"Good," said Eeth. "The next thing we will need is fresh food. We will hopefully find native fruit, leaves, herbs, seeds or nuts that are edible. So let us check the surroundings for anything that looks as if it might do. We will analyse it, and if it is not poisonous to any of us, we will taste it. If it does not taste good raw, it might be worth trying to cook it. Only if we have no other choice, we will prepare pre-packaged food for dinner."

Endal would rather spend his day examining the local flora than working out, but he did not voice those thoughts. It was with considerable enthusiasm that he started looking for edible plants. A few hours later, they had found a tasty kind of nut, a type of sweet red berry very popular with the local birds, and several types of leafy plants that could be used to make a salad.

Meanwhile, Drkai and Raven had their work cut out for them. They ran into a variety of burrowers, several species of small cat-like predators, and a lot of ants and bugs.

"Insects," Drkai spoke quietly, squinting through her macrobinoculars at the horizon. Raven was kneeling beside her, so she handed them over. "Tell me what you make of them."

Raven rolled her eyes, expecting another 'bug bomb' of insignificance. What she saw, however, had her wide-eyed. "They are about the same size as jevesect. These ones are skinnier, though. They look more like dragonflies." Raven squinted. "Dragonflies with an extra set of wings."

"Anything else?" Drkai prompted.

Raven shrugged. "I don't really know that much about giant insects. These ones don't have a proboscis?"

"Correct," Drkai encouraged. "Think about it, what could that mean? What else do you notice?"

Raven turned the focus, searching for anything that might stand out. It took her a few guesses but eventually, she got it right. "Oh, wait, they have a stinger. It's small, though. Force, I hope that doesn't mean they have teeth instead."

"Me too. For the moment I sense they're uninterested in venturing far from their nest area. We'll need to be mindful. There could be other colonies. Well done."

Raven smiled at the praise and noted the details down on their pad as she followed Drkai to their next point of interest. There was a LOT to sense on this planet.

By the time they were almost done for the day, having spent the last hour searching in and around an oasis, Drkai and Raven had quite a bit to report; they would use the hour or so it took to make the journey back compiling notes. Not Raven's favourite duty, yet there was something about writing on the move that made this typically mundane task more tolerable.

Eeth and Endal were already expecting their teammates. The sun was quite low on the horizon by then and they were almost finished preparing a meal. Endal had made a salad. Eeth had cracked the nuts open, roasted them and fried them with rice and some kind of local berry. The food was simmering and nearly done when Eeth suddenly sensed something approaching from behind the hilltop, and it was not Drkai and Raven. He was by far not as good with animals as his padawan, but he could sense that this one was big and had the single-minded sense of purpose that was characteristic of predators. It was making straight for their camp, cautiously, but with determination.

"Endal," he said quietly, pressing the button on his comlink that would immediately call back Drkai to where he was, "get yourself to the shuttle and lock the doors. Do not open them before I tell you to."

"Huh?" Endal said, looking up from where he had taken to analysing grass seeds.

"Padawan Endal, that was an order," Eeth said sharply. "Do it. Now."

He drew his lightsaber and noiselessly moved towards the hilltop; the creature was not far now.

"Yes, but what's going on?" Endal asked, taking a few steps after Eeth, his hand moving towards the hilt of his own saber. Part of him knew that this was suicidal, but the other, currently stronger part claimed that a true Jedi would not sit locked up in a shuttle while letting others deal with danger. That, and he was curious as well.

When Eeth sensed Endal right behind himself, he spun around faster than lightning and slapped the boy across the face. "To the shuttle," he hissed. "Run." He had no time for this! To his relief, Endal, having clutched his cheek and given him a look of stunned disbelief, with a few hurt feelings thrown into the mix, seemed to come to his senses and hurried off towards the bottom of the valley where their shuttle was parked.

Drkai and Raven had been held up recording details of a carcass that they were yet to identify. Drkai had just dropped a fragment of bone into a specimen jar when she stood abruptly.

"Master Luthan?" Raven enquired, a hand dropping to grip her saber and senses on high alert. Before either of them had time to speak, however, Drkai's comlink signalled that Eeth had activated the duress function on his device. Raven forced the rising panic back down; something was wrong.

"We're going to run back to the camp," said Drkai. "Do not kill yourself doing this. Be mindful of your surroundings. Use the Force. I will be much faster, so if you don't receive further instructions from Eeth or myself when you arrive, find a safe place and stay there. Go, quickly."

Accustomed to Eeth's 'obey first and question later' approach, Raven did as she was told without question and was gone in a flash.

Drkai had no idea what was going on at their campsite. Endal was safe, that much she was certain of as she could sense his unharmed presence clearly from this distance. He wasn't afraid, more like he was confused, which only made Drkai run faster to reach her comrade. Whatever Eeth was doing, he wanted backup!

And indeed, when she arrived at the campsite, she found a panting Eeth sitting on a rock next to a giant dead lizard twice his size. Eeth had severed one of its two heads but as the predator had collapsed, the other head, which was equipped with razor-sharp teeth, had managed to make a swipe at him. Eeth had shed his robe and was pressing it to a deep bleeding cut to his left upper arm.

"That animal," he said, looking up and giving Drkai a brief smile, "considered us dinner, I am afraid. I really hope this creature's teeth are not poisonous. By myself, there was little I could do to fend it off without killing it. Could you make sure we do not have more unexpected visitors of the kind, Drkai?"

Drkai took a brief look at his arm. The cut was deep and was going to need attention, but Eeth was correct: her priority was to make sure no more two-headed lizards were lurking around the place. "This sort of animal tends to be opportunistic. It likely acted on instinct. It was Force-sensitive," she reported, having placed her hand on the beast's neck. Which might explain why neither she nor Eeth had not sensed it sooner!

Drkai pulled a small swab kit and sample reader from her belt and took several samples from the creature's teeth, examining the mouth and throat for poison glands or hollow tubes within the tooth itself. "It doesn't appear to be poisonous," she said, swabbing her samples across the small reader. "It's more likely its bite might carry toxic bacteria, as would its claws. You'll need to run a scan on yourself and check for both. Raven should arrive shortly. She and Endal can help you with your wound while I go and make sure our lizard friend doesn't have company."

Eeth nodded and made to get up, but as he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him, he thought he had better sit back down. He pulled out his comlink and called Endal. "You may come out now," he told the boy. "Would you come to the campsite and bring me a medical kit?"

Endal was still feeling offended that Eeth had slapped him across the face. His cheek actually hurt from the force of the slap! But he knew that if Eeth needed a medical kit, something must have happened that had precedence over his hurt feelings. "Yes, Master Eeth," he said and went to do as told.

Since Raven was unable to maintain long bursts of Force-enhanced running without 'killing herself', as Drkai had so aptly phrased, she arrived just as Endal left the shuttle, medkit in hand. Her eyes widened momentarily, and she reached out with the Force to link with Eeth. He was hurt, although not mortally so. "What happened?" she asked urgently, resisting the urge to grab the medkit and run ahead; she needed to catch her breath.

Endal stared at her for a moment. Raven looked a mess. Her blonde hair had half fallen out of the ponytail, both pant legs were strewn with some sort of prickly burr, her boots were covered in dust and shit, and her forearms were covered in tiny weals, probably from having run through some taller thickets of grass, he assumed.

"No idea," Endal finally answered her question, coming to his senses. "Eeth sensed something and told me to hide in the shuttle. Just now, he called me and asked me to bring the medkit. I have no clue what happened in between. Come on, let's hurry. I assume he's hurt."

They made their way up the slope of the hill as fast as they could. Endal's eyes widened at seeing the giant lizard, its severed head and Eeth's bleeding arm. For a moment, he felt about ready to puke.

"Here's the medkit," he said shakily, holding it out to Eeth.

Raven looked at the wound, at the medkit and then up at Eeth. He was having trouble standing up. "That needs stitches. I can do it, or you might want to wait for Master Luthan? I probably wouldn't, though, you're losing too much blood despite your efforts," Raven said, glancing at the giant lizard that had managed to score a hit on Eeth, which was quite some feat, she thought.

"I would be most grateful if you could do the stitching," Eeth replied, giving her a small smile. He was confident that his padawan, who had a penchant for healing, would be capable, and it would be good practice. "Disinfect your hands first," he advised her. "The wound does not need it, it is bleeding strongly enough to wash out contaminants."

Endal threw one look at the wound and looked away immediately, feeling slightly sick.

"You should have let me help," he said, kneeling down next to Eeth and giving the man a reproachful look. He had never been slapped across the face before and it had been a blow to his dignity. All thoughts of his dignity vanished quickly, however, as Eeth turned a glare towards him that was darker than any he had seen on the man's face before.

"Help me how, exactly?" Eeth asked icily. "Waving your practice saber at the creature and forcing me to defend you, as well as myself, is not the kind of help I needed. What I would have needed is a padawan who obeys his orders immediately, without question. We are on a mission, Padawan Endal. We are not playing games. When I tell you to run and hide, you run and hide, no matter what your personal feelings about this are. When a superior Jedi gives you an order, you do not ignore him, you do not ask questions, you certainly do not defy him. Fortunately, it is my left arm that is injured, not my right. Once my padawan has seen to my wound, I will personally make clear to you how very seriously I take this rule. Lives may depend on your willingness to obey direct orders, and I am not going to risk our lives by letting you get away with the kind of attitude you displayed today."

Endal had flushed a deep red by the time Eeth was finished, and his head hung in shame. Eeth normally avoided scolding in public; the fact that he did it now must mean that he had really, really messed up. Of course, his master always insisted on obedience as well; but she had never begrudged him questions. That said, they had also never been on a mission that involved actual danger. Endal realised only now that this fact alone would make a difference.

"I'm sorry, Master Eeth," he said quietly. "I… I didn't think. I was being selfish. Sorry."

"I accept your apology," Eeth replied. "That will not save you from the consequences of your actions, though. Now do me a favour and see to it that our food does not burn while my padawan stitches the wound."

While that conversation went on, Raven had gloved up, gotten the medkit organised and was just peeling the last instrument from its wrapping as Endal left. Stitching Eeth's arm was no problem. In fact, if she hadn't known it was going to cause him pain, Raven would have enjoyed the job. "Sorry," she said with a wince after having given him the hypo and local anaesthetic. Eeth just closed his eyes, though, and so she got to work. When there were only three stitches left to put in, and Endal was sitting by the fire tending to their food and unable to hear what she had to say, Raven paused. She had been thinking of a way to broach this with Eeth since overhearing their conversation. "Do you really have to go postal on Endal? He's never been on a mission like this before. Maybe you should leave it to Master Drkai." The latter was a particularly brave suggestion, but she'd said it knowing full well what the response was likely to be. Also, she'd hoped that maybe the fact that she was currently waving a very large, curved needle over his arm might just temper his wrath. Yeah.

Eeth could understand his padawan's desire to protect Endal, but that did not mean he cared for her suggestions.

"Maybe," Eeth said curtly, "you should leave it to me to decide how to deal with disobedient padawans. I expect Master Luthan will have a word with Endal in this matter. However, it was me he disobeyed, and quite blatantly so. I know that the concept of obedience is not foreign to him. We might end up in life-threatening situations again sooner than we think, and I am not going to leave Endal's behaviour in such situations open to chance."

Wordlessly, the padawan nodded; she had expected a far terser, more scathing response from Eeth, after all. Instead, she finished suturing, doused the area in an antibacterial wash, covered it in bacta, and when Eeth pronounced it suitable, she bandaged it. "You'll probably need a few antibiotic hypos at the least," she said, pulling a canteen from her belt and dropping a couple of electrolyte pills in the top. "Are you okay, can you stand up now?" Raven handed him the canteen and looked around briefly. Where in the Force was Drkai?

"I think I will be fine once I have drunk this," said Eeth and took a gulp. "Thank you, padawan. You did a very good job."

"You're welcome." Raven struggled to keep the beaming smile from her face and accept Eeth's praise humbly. It was hard, especially so as he did not praise her every achievement. She coughed unnecessarily and then busied herself putting their medkit back together. "When you are up to it, we should get rid of the body, you know, bury it or something in case there are more and they come looking for it. What did Master Luthan say about it? Does she want to keep it for samples? And, where is she anyway?"

"Checking for more predators of that kind," replied Eeth. He rose from his position very cautiously to see if he could stand and, to his relief, found that he could. His head felt clear, too. He called Endal over, slowly made his way a few metres upwards, to the hilltop where the dead creature was lying, and looked around. There was a small stony crevasse to the south. Deeming it sufficient, he, Raven and Endal gently levitated the creature's body into the crevasse. The severed head followed.

"We can cover it with rocks later," Eeth said. "You are right, padawan; Master Luthan might want to take samples."

"Oh. Okay." Raven thought about that for a moment and then stopped, letting Eeth and Endal walk on without her for a few steps. When Eeth turned a questioning look back at her, Raven explained. "I was thinking that if you're okay to make it back to the campsite with Endal, I could go and help Master Luthan." Raven didn't really want to leave Eeth's side, but then, she thought it was what Eeth would have done in her position.

"No, padawan," said Eeth. "I will not let you head out there by yourself. Come with us to the campsite. We will start on dinner for as long as it is still edible. I am sure Master Luthan will be with us soon. You may help her then."

Raven wanted to argue that she wouldn't be by herself, that she'd eventually be with Drkai but refrained from doing so if only because, well, she didn't want to add to Eeth's woes. Besides, Endal didn't look worried about Drkai, and he would know better than any of them if she needed help. Raven tried to console herself with this as she helped with dinner, all the while keeping an eye on Eeth. His wound had not been insignificant by any stretch of the imagination.

When Drkai finally arrived back at the camp some time later, Endal and Raven were cleaning up their dinner plates while Eeth was stirring a pot over the fire. Immediately she noticed that Endal was feeling guilty over something. Alright, whatever had gone on here, she would find out soon enough, thought Drkai. "There was a small gathering of the reptiles living underground, several kilometres from our campsite. I've dissuaded them from approaching us for the time being. They are not very smart, but they are dangerous all the same," she told Eeth, nodding gratefully when he handed her a bowl of food. Drkai had also taken a claw from the dead lizard and buried it inside their territory, making it less likely that they would venture out in search of a lost scent. There wasn't much else they could do, short of moving camp, and she explained as much to Eeth.

Eeth, in turn, told her where they had levitated the dead lizard. "After dinner, you might take Raven to collect any samples you need and bury the creature," he said. "I will need to have a talk with your padawan. Before I do, could we have a word in private?"

"Yes," replied Drkai. Although she might just want to have a word with Endal herself before that happened, without embarrassing him further, of course.

When Drkai finished her meal, she called Endal from cleaning dishes and took him far enough away that their conversation would remain private. "Want to tell me what's going on between you and our mission leader?" she asked, seating herself on a rock and gesturing that he join her.

Endal blushed. "Well, he kind of told me to run and hide in the shuttle, and I might have been a bit reluctant to do so," he admitted. "I mean, it felt cowardly. And it made me feel useless. I thought I should be able to help him!"

"Padawan, you know very well that obedience is non-negotiable, regardless of how it makes you feel personally. If Master Koth told you to go, then don't you think that the best way you had of helping him was to obey that order?"

Endal flung up his hands in frustration. "Yes, well that's easy to say in hindsight," he said. "Of course you're right. And I did obey him. Just not immediately! That was apparently enough for him to slap me across the face. Hard!"

Ignoring his frustration, Drkai took Endal's chin in her hand and gently turned his face to examine it in what was left of the dwindling daylight. His left cheek was indeed a touch pink, yet the effect was so slight that she had previously passed it off as shadowing in the late afternoon sunset. "Hindsight is not a luxury in which the Jedi often get to indulge. Our decisions can sometimes result in life and death. Master Koth's treatment might have seemed harsh to you, but you both live now, possibly because you eventually decided to obey your orders." Drkai let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "You will accept any punishment Master Koth deems appropriate, and I hope for your sake that you learn from this because if you don't, the next time I will be adding to this." It was harsh for Drkai, but she was serious about her threat.

Endal flinched. He was under no illusion that the punishment Eeth was going to mete out was going to be mild in any sense of the word. "Yes, master," he said quietly, torn between feeling ashamed and sorry for himself.

Feeling that enough had been said, Drkai put an arm around Endal in a brief offer of comfort and gestured that he follow her back to their campsite. She needed to deal with the lizard carcass before they were forced to rely on artificial light, not to mention the fact that Eeth wanted to speak with her about all of this, or so she gathered.

"Padawan Endal, please help Raven fetch some water from the creek," said Eeth, pointing at a couple of water bags. "I need to have a word with your master."

He took Drkai aside and said in a low voice, "I assume Endal told you what happened?"

"He did," she agreed.

"Then I assume he told you I slapped him, too," said Eeth. "This is not something I usually do but at the time, I felt that I had no other choice. I told your padawan to get himself into the shuttle and lock it. I gave that order twice, in no uncertain terms, but he not only ignored it, he came after me. Slapping him across the face was the fastest way to get him to obey. By the time he finally did, the lizard was almost upon us. I will have to punish him for his disobedience because I cannot risk it to happen again during this mission. Are you alright with that?"

"You did what needed to be done to keep you both alive, and I'm thankful for that," Drkai said solemnly. She pondered his question for a moment. "If you're asking me for my consent to punish Endal, then you have it. Endal was out of line, and I've made that abundantly clear to him; he knows what to expect for this sort of disobedience." That didn't mean that Drkai was without hesitations here. This was her apprentice and handing him over to another master for discipline took a lot of trust, even if it was their mission leader.

"Thank you," said Eeth quietly. "Endal is normally a fairly compliant child, but I have the impression that he trusts us to repeat an order once or twice if we really mean it. He needs to know that if we give an order, we always mean it. The first time. I have to point out that he will receive a fairly harsh punishment because what he did was no light offence. If my own padawan disobeys me during a mission, in a mission-related situation, she can count on receiving a switching, at the very least. And I think Endal deserves no less for his behaviour. He endangered both of us."

"He did, and I believe that telling him as much would be a punishment in and of itself for a boy like Endal. I'll tell you now that Endal has not experienced the sort of punishment you're planning on giving him. I do realise that he's certainly earned as much and that he will survive, but I ask that you take that information into consideration when dealing with him."

"I will," said Eeth. "I also always provide healing after a harsh punishment like the one your padawan deserves for this stunt."

He gave Drkai a small smile.

"Your padawan will live," he assured her. "He is quite a bit more resilient than he believes."

"Yes, convincing him of that has been my goal for a while now," Drkai agreed, although the moment the words were spoken, she immediately regretted them. It had sounded as if she were defending herself to Eeth and in a way, perhaps she had been. Drkai took a moment to look up at the clear sky. This was about what Endal needed to succeed, not about her.

While Eeth and Drkai were discussing Endal's fate, the two padawans were busy dragging water bags back from the creek. Endal had been fairlyquiet on the way there and their conversation light. Raven could tell that he was apprehensive, though, and so Raven decided to just come out and ask him. "Are you okay?"

Endal shrugged at Raven's question and gave her a crooked smile.

"As okay as I'm going to be, seeing as your master is probably going to tear off my hide," he said. "The worst thing, though, is that I'm not sure whether it was my fault that he got hurt. I mean, if I had followed his orders right away, he would have been able to actually focus on that… that creature. Truth be told, I feel quite awful about that."

Raven nodded in understanding and met Endal with a sympathetic expression. "Hey, it wasn't your fault that Eeth got hurt; my master can focus when he needs to, trust me on that. The lizard was totally unexpected; even your master was surprised to find them so close to the camp." Raven paused to readjust one of the water bags on her shoulder. "And I can sympathise with you about feeling bad about all of this. Force, I've disobeyed during missions myself, and I always feel like I'm the worst padawan in the entire galaxy because of it. I don't mean to sound patronising or anything, but don't worry, you won't feel like that forever. Unfortunately, my master is probably going to make you feel a lot worse before you get that reprieve, though."

Endal grimaced.

"To be honest," he admitted, "I would kind of feel even more rotten if he didn't. Make me feel worse, I mean. I know it sounds stupid. Heck, I don't want him to spank me! But I don't want to get away with this either 'cause I'd feel really bad about it."

'No, you do not want him to spank you, really you don't,' thought Raven, remembering how bad the pain was and not wishing it on anyone, ever! She did understand, though, and she said as much. "I know, and I understand completely. Don't think you're the only padawan who's felt like this." Raven was hoping that her words would reassure him. However, when they returned with the water and Raven caught sight of Eeth's expression as he called Endal to him, she did not envy her fellow padawan.

Eeth said quietly: "Come, Padawan Endal."

He led the way downwards into the valley and followed the creek for a bit, around a bend where they were hidden from view and at best faintly audible to Raven and Drkai. Turning around to face Endal, he asked sternly, "You know why you are going to be punished, do you not?"

Endal nodded miserably.

"Yes," he said. "I disobeyed a direct order and endangered both of us. I might even have caused you to be hurt. I'm really, really sorry, Master Eeth. I deserve whatever punishment you give me. I won't do it again, I promise!"

Eeth could sense that the boy's apology was sincere and that he was beating himself up over supposedly having caused Eeth's injury.

"You are not responsible for the fact that I got hurt," Eeth said. "Fortunately for both of us, you decided to comply with my orders just in time. Still, it was a close call, and I do not fancy the thought of a repeat occurrence. Were you my padawan, I would certainly have confiscated your saber for this. However, you are not, and therefore the fate of your bottom is your biggest concern right now."

He did not give Endal a chance to reply to this. Since he suspected that the boy had no idea what a good switch was supposed to look like, he crossed over to the creek and cut a solid, whippy branch from one of the bushes growing at its side. Turning around, he looked for an object to make Endal bend over, but failed to see anything suitable. However, a few meters further upstream a couple of old trees presented themselves.

"Bare your bottom, lean against the tree over there and wrap your arms around it," he told Endal, the look on his face clearly conveying the fact that he was not going to brook any objections.

Nodding his head miserably, Endal complied. He was afraid of the pain, but he was even more ashamed of his behaviour and determined to accept whatever Eeth meted out.

Any attempt at stoicism turned out to be unrealistic. He flinched violently at the first stroke, yelped at the second and howled at the third. Eeth did not do him the favour of stopping there, however; he meted out a full dozen strokes and Endal was reduced to sobbing helplessly by the time Eeth was finished, stomping his feet in a futile attempt to alleviate some of the burning sting. He had not released his hold of the tree trunk, however, pressing his face against it so hard that it hurt.

Eeth rested a comforting hand onto his back.

"Take a few minutes to calm down," he told the boy. "I will send your master down here so she can have a talk with you. When you are done, I will provide some relief for your bottom."

Endal nodded briefly in acknowledgement, still sobbing. One hand disengaged from the tree to rub at his bottom tentatively, but this proved even more painful, so he withdrew it fast.

While Eeth was dealing with Endal, Drkai and Raven made short work of collecting samples and completely burying the lizard body. "Is everything alright?" Drkai asked Raven when they returned to camp. The usually chatty padawan had been decidedly quiet despite doing work that Drkai knew interested her.

"Yeah. It's nothing, I'm just tired, is all," Raven replied dismissively.

"Nothing, hmm? Well, alright, then. I'm here if you want to talk about it."

Raven didn't reply to that verbally but did give a polite nod in thanks. How could she tell Drkai that she felt a bit jealous of all the time Eeth was devoting to Endal? She couldn't! It was entirely stupid, and if she were honest with herself, she really WANTED Eeth to help him! Not to mention that being punished by her master was most definitely not something Raven ever wanted, let alone should feel jealous over! So why did it make her so crazy? She huffed again.

Drkai watched the padawan brood. She could practically see the cogs turning in her mind, but over what? When the last of their chores were completed, accompanied by yet another huff from Raven, Drkai took pity on the girl and called her over. Whatever was bothering Raven was festering, and that wasn't good for any padawan. "Sit with me?"

Raven hesitated for a moment, but then her desire for the offered comfort took over, and she flopped down in Drkai's lap Indian style.

Drkai didn't say anything. Instead, she began detangling the mass of knots that had accumulated in Raven's hair throughout the day.

Raven was not used to a woman's care, and although Eeth did her padawan's braid occasionally, this was different. She sat there in silence for what seemed like a really long time but was probably only a minute or two in hindsight. Feeling relaxed, Raven finally asked, "Can I ask you about something without you jumping all over me about it?"

"That you need a precursor to accompany that request has me wondering about my answer," Drkai replied through a chuckle.

Raven snorted but found that she was smiling herself. "Did you ever get jealous of anyone before?"

Ah, so that's it, thought Drkai as she started to braid a section of Raven's hair into an intricate pattern. "Oh, yes. Many times. That is what's bothering you?"

"Kinda." Raven lowered her head, forcing Drkai to pull back on her hair lest she end up with crooked braids.

"Want to tell me about it?"

"No, not really. I will, though." And with that, Raven started to confide her feelings of jealousy towards Endal. When it had started, how it made her feel and worst of all, how she knew it was selfish of her to think like that in the first place. "Endal is so disgustingly good at everything I'm not! Sometimes I think that maybe my master would be happier with a padawan more like Endal. You know? Good at classwork, eager to learn about all the boring stuff and not so unfocused, restless and undisciplined." Okay, so the latter was not entirely true. Raven possessed great discipline when it came to things that interested her, but then, that was entirely the point.

Drkai listened without interruption. All the while, long fingers deftly turned Raven's hair into an absolute masterpiece. Why? For no other reason than the fact that her ministrations seemed to be having a soothing effect on Raven, at least for the time being. "It's normal to feel those emotions," she reassured, "and as you know, it's how you deal with them that matters the most. I will tell you, though, that doubting the Will of the Force is a waste of energy. Eeth and yourself, like Endal and myself, are a Force-willed partnership, you must see that."

Raven did see it. The problem was that she was allowing jealousy to override her better judgement. "Yeah, well, what if the Force was wrong, or it changed its mind?" Raven said and immediately felt like a complete idiot. Again she slouched, only to be pulled back as Drkai started braiding another section of her hair.

"Raven, you know better than that. What does your master say about it?"

"I haven't really told him about it in this detail before. He kinda knows I'm jealous, but he probably doesn't know how crazy it's making me."

"I see." Drkai finished off the braid and gestured that Raven turned to face her. The twists and braids she had woven into Raven's hair accentuated her delicate features; the effect was truly stunning, and, of course, entirely out of place here! "You know that I'm going to advise you to talk to your master, yes?"

"Yes, I will. Really…"

Raven's tone was too eager to be convincing. Drkai nodded all the same and swiped a smudge of dirt from Raven's cheek just as Eeth came into view. Endal was not with him. She stood, giving Eeth a questioning look.

"I think you should go see your padawan and talk to him," Eeth told her quietly. "I will offer him some healing after that."

He sat down next to Raven, trying to make it look unhurried although, truth be told, he was quite eager to sit because he was not feeling well at all. His arm was bothering him, and although he was well able to deal with pain, he knew that it would be foolish not to allow his wound some rest.

"That is quite some hairstyle, padawan," he said with a small smile.

* * *

Drkai was certain that her padawan was in considerable discomfort; she could sense it across their bond. It pained her that it had come to that, but nobody would deny it was deserved, not even Endal, she mused upon sensing no resentment or anger across their bond. It was almost pitch black now, and Drkai was relying on the Force so that she didn't fall over thickets of grass, or worse, down a warren. Endal's sniffles and quiet cries lead her in the right direction in any case.

When she found him, he was leaning against a tree crying. He had not bothered to pull up his trousers, yet his tunic provided ample modesty. "It's alright, Endal," Drkai said soothingly and gently pulled him into her arms to offer some well-earned comfort. The boy was a hot mess. His face was streaked with snot and tears, his eyes were red and puffy, and his backside was undoubtedly not faring much better.

Endal readily accepted the hug his master offered, but he was a little wary, too. Eeth had indicated that his master was going to have a talk with him of her own. Did that mean that more punishment was to follow?

Drkai sensed Endal's caution but said nothing for the moment. Instead, she waited for him to settle down and then handed him a handkerchief.

Wiping tears and snot away with it, he asked in a voice that was still thick with all the crying he had done, "Are you going to punish me, too, master?"

That was something that Drkai had thought about herself. Ultimately, though, she really did think that Eeth had more than covered it this time. Thus, she said, "No, I believe you've been punished enough. However…" Drkai paused, tilting her padawan's chin so that he was looking at her. "Disobeying a direct order is not only a grave offence, but it's also one that you have already been punished for during this mission. You need to learn that when you are given a command, you obey it. It is non-negotiable. Not only can you risk your own life by doing so but also the lives of your teammates. If you ever do something like this again, you will answer to me also, regardless of who it was you defied. Is that very clearly understood?"

Endal nodded unhappily, as far as his master's fingers under his chin allowed him to do so. He was glad that she would not punish him any further, as he was not sure that his bottom would be able to stand it.

"I won't do it again," he promised solemnly. "I guess I hadn't caught up with being on a real mission with real dangers. It was stupid of me, and I'm really sorry. The next time somebody gives me an order, I will obey instantly, I promise."

"I believe you," said Drkai with conviction. "Making mistakes is a part of learning. Just make sure that you do learn from them. Are you ready to face the camp yet? I suspect Master Koth will want to take a look at you and offer some healing." Equally, the Jedi would be content to sit and comfort her padawan for as long as he needed; he had been through quite a lot these last few weeks, and she could understand if he needed time.

"A bit of healing would be a great idea," Endal admitted. "I don't think I am much use for anything in my current state."

A quarter of an hour later, Endal's backside was in a much better shape, although Eeth had been cautious not to spend too much healing energy; he needed it for himself. He provided bacta, though, and it was doing its work.

When Eeth had left to tend to Endal, Raven's mind flicked back to what Drkai had said about her jealousy. She probably should have talked to Eeth about it while they had time. The problem with that was that Raven didn't want to waste what time they had without the others talking about her jealousy. Besides, Eeth already knew, mostly. If it came up again, she might address it. Maybe. For now, though, Raven was going to deal with it herself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"Crack those nuts, please," Eeth told Endal, gesturing at a bowl of large blackish nuts they had found today and identified as edible. "I will go to the creek and wash the leaves. On my way back, I will bring some grains from the shuttle."

Eeth's upper arm was still hurting, not that he let it on. But he really thought he should refrain from doing anything that would require him to apply force or move his arm too much. Washing leaves was definitely safer than cracking a bowl of tough nuts!

Once he was back with Endal, he said, "Your master and Raven should be back soon. We will discuss who's having a workout with whom then. We will still have plenty of time while dinner is cooking."

When Drkai and Raven showed up a little later that afternoon, it was to the smell of something cooking in a slow cooker on the fire. It smelled delicious. For once, Raven's pant legs weren't covered in prickles and her face was free from dirt. Today they had gone to a less dusty, slightly greener area. Well, as green as it got around this semi-arid part of Arkuna, Drkai had mused. They'd collected many samples, yet had not found any signs of sentient life or, for that matter, any being more substantial than a tomcat. "Your turn," she told Raven, pointing to Eeth with a smile.

"Aw, so I'm apprenticed to a slave driver, and now my tutor is becoming one too?" Raven replied in a stage whisper, trying to get a rise out of Eeth.

Eeth ignored her jab. "Drkai. Raven," he said calmly. "Have you had a successful day?"

Drkai smiled just a bit, but Raven only rolled her eyes at Eeth's lack of response and went to sit by his side to give their report. They were documenting everything, of course, but it was still good practice, and there were a few sections of terrain that Eeth would need to know about, namely, "There was an area full of sinkholes," Raven explained while Drkai sat by Endal, loading samples into her reader. "It's possible that there used to be more water around here and what's left underground is evaporating or shifting. But you two are the geo-turbo-nerds here, what do you think?" Raven looked from Eeth to Endal, and then back again.

Endal's curiosity was piqued. "We'd need to check it out," he said. "There's still time. Can we?"

"Well, I had thought to provide the two of you with a workout in the remaining two hours or so until dinner," said Eeth. "However, for our mission's sake, you might go with one of us and have a look. The other one can have a workout with Raven in the meanwhile. I have to point out, though, that I am not up to sparring or anything else that requires my physical involvement. My arm still needs a lot of rest.

Raven, maybe it would be best if I went with Endal while you have a sparring session with Master Drkai, who will be able to take you out into the hills and chase you around. If that is alright with you?" He said that last bit to Drkai who nodded her assent.

Raven didn't care if Eeth couldn't spar with her; she wanted to spend some time with him. She had been with Drkai all day, and now he wanted her to go off with her again? Raven's face fell as realisation dawned: it was probably so he could have more time with Endal. "Never mind. I'm not really up to anything anyway. Have fun," she said, trying to be blasé about it all as she stood and headed for her tent.

"Stop," Eeth said sharply. "I do not recall having given you the choice to turn your back on me and leave, nor is it up to you to decide whether you want to have a workout or not. Get yourself back here and sit down. I am not finished talking to you."

Raven stopped mid-stride, hesitated for a split second and then turned and obeyed. She sat where he gestured, all the while trying to keep the disappointment she felt from showing through in her expression. "I didn't know you weren't finished. What else do you want to say other than that I have no choice?" she asked, a little more curtly than she might have otherwise.

Eeth's eyes narrowed. "Mind your tone," he said coolly. "Padawan, I pointed out to you that I have little to offer in the way of sparring, which is the only reason I suggested you work out with Master Luthan instead. If this is not what you prefer, you may tell me now – politely and respectfully. If not, then lose the attitude and go have a workout with Master Luthan."

Sure, it's the only reason, thought Raven disbelievingly, but it was Drkai who spoke up.

"I'd say that it would be best if you spent this time with your master, Raven. I can think of a few things that you might want to discuss, if nothing else."

Raven frowned at Drkai, her expression clearly of the 'stay out of this' kind. When she turned back to Eeth, however, the tension in her jaw had lessened slightly, and her posture was not as defensive. "Fine, then I respectfully and politely request that you let me work out on my own, then. May I have that option?"

"No," said Eeth, stony-faced.

Raven folded her arms and stared at him, her gaze attempting to match Eeth's. He was being unreasonable now. "Why not?" It was a fair enough question, after all.

Eeth was silent for a moment. Then he said, "You seem to be in a combative mood, padawan. I think you should get rid of it before we continue our talk. Go and meditate for half an hour. When you are done, we will try this again."

Combative? Combative! Raven huffed disbelievingly. But given the expression on Eeth's face, she didn't risk saying anything else and was up and gone in a flash.

Drkai looked from Raven's retreating form as it disappeared into her tent, and then back to Eeth. "We'll head out shortly," she said and stood, beckoning Endal to get himself ready.

"Alright," Eeth said, giving her a small smile. "I assume my padawan needs my attention, whether she wants to admit it or not."

Drkai just nodded and left to gather the instruments and tools they'd need to properly inspect the sinkholes. It had crossed her mind to inform Eeth of the things Raven had confided in her, but then, she would give her time to share this with her master herself. It was what she would have wanted as a padawan. "Yes, and what you want and what you need aren't always the same thing." Drkai smiled at the memory of her own master's words. If Raven had not confided in Eeth by the time they returned, she would take the man aside and speak with him.

Eeth decided to rest for a bit and put up his arm while he did. It had suffered a deep gash which meant that it was still bothering him.

When the half hour was up, he made his way to their tent and opened the flap.

"Come talk to me, padawan," he said.

Raven followed Eeth to their campfire area and sat next to him. The time spent releasing her emotions into the Force had helped – well, as far as that she no longer felt driven by hurt feelings or anger. "I'm sorry I was," she paused, recalling the word he used, "combative. What do you want to talk about?" Raven had a feeling she knew, yet it was hard for her to come out and say.

"Apology accepted," Eeth said, his solemn gaze fixed on her face. "Padawan, you are a young Jedi and I expect you to find more constructive ways to deal with your emotions than taking them out on me. And I still do not see what caused them in the first place. Can you explain it to me?"

"Probably." Raven glanced up at him guilty. "But you can't help me with this, I have to help myself." That was true, too, as far as she was concerned because what the Force was he supposed to do about all this? Stop paying attention to Endal and spend his time with her instead? Selfish, entirely selfish. The thought made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

"That may well be true," said Eeth, "but I still want you to explain yourself. That is an order, padawan." He could hardly provide Raven with guidance if he had no idea what was bothering her, after all!

Raven stiffened at receiving that response; now there was nothing to do but obey him. She sighed and raked a hand through her hair, which still looked like an afro thanks to having slept with braids in. "I'm jealous that you're spending all your time with Endal, and hardly any with me. It's more than that, though. I am the only member of this mission team who has nothing to offer anyone." Raven gesticulated as she spoke: "Endal helps me with homework, but nobody asks me to help him with anything because, Force forbid, he just might be tarnished by my influence or something. Most of the time I feel like you'd swap apprentices in a heartbeat if Drkai would allow it because Endal is just that damned good at everything you value. How do you think that makes me feel?!"

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "So you were jealous," he said. "You thought I would rather spend time with Endal than have a workout with you. That is, quite frankly, ridiculous nonsense. First, our pairing is Force-willed. Second, you and Drkai are doing the real work. I am keeping Endal busy setting up tents and cooking dinner in the meanwhile. This whole mission is devoted to giving you a chance at developing your skills with animals, and in doing so, you are fulfilling our main mission objective.

You really have no reason for self-pity. In case you have not noticed, I am making a point of spending as much time with you as I possibly can in this setup. And I am pretty certain you have not noticed because the only thing you seem to notice is the time I spend with Endal, rather than focussing on what you can take away from this mission."

"No, I have not noticed, because it's not true. You're palming me off to Drkai at every opportunity. I can't do anything to help anyone else, either. I AM the only one with nothing to offer." Raven stood and started pacing. "You don't care how I feel about all of this, either. You asked, no, you ORDERED me to confess and now you're telling me that what I feel is nonsense. Well, if it is nothing but nonsense, why should you care?" Raven couldn't help it, her composure cracked slightly, and she was forced to swallow the lump that had been trying to choke her.

"I care because you are my padawan," snapped Eeth. "Not Drkai's nor anyone else's. I procured this mission for you, not for Endal, so you could develop your talents with an adequate teacher. How you manage to construe this as 'palming you off to Drkai', I have no idea. If you prefer to let Drkai do all the work on her own so you can tag along behind me and help with the cooking, go ahead and tell me. Of course, that way you would neither contribute to the mission nor learn anything. Is your skill with animals worth so little to you? Or our mission mandate, for that matter? Are you implying I am lying to you when I tell you that your work is what we are here for? Do you have that little trust in me?" He assumed that reiterating his statement about her feelings being nonsensical would not go over well and thus refrained from it. They still were nonsensical!

Those were a lot of questions. "No, because as you say, following you around all day would make me even more useless on this mission if that's possible. Fine, whatever. It's all nonsense. I humbly apologise that you forced me to bring it up. Now, if you're done making me feel even shittier than I did before, I'll go and do a workout. You needn't put yourself out, I can manage this on my own." Raven gestured to his arm, which was no doubt causing him pain. She was willing to help him with that, but given Eeth hadn't asked for her help, she assumed that it wasn't wanted.

Eeth drew a deep breath, deciding to make one more attempt to terminate this argument that did not involve putting his padawan across his knees because, silly or not, her feelings were obviously genuine. "Padawan," he said in a voice of forced calm. "I have told you before that this is not an option. I do not care to repeat myself, and I certainly will not do so another time. I will provide you with a workout because you seem to need it and because, contrary to your assumptions, I am not looking for ways to minimise the time I spend with you. After dinner, we will meditate together which will hopefully help you see how misplaced your notions are. Before we get to all that, however, we will need to look at my arm. It is bothering me. It might need a fresh bandage, at the very least. Please fetch me the medical kit."

Unwilling to argue further, since they were not going to agree, Raven fetched the medkit as instructed. She sat beside him and started unwrapping the bandage. As expected, the wound was red and looked inflamed but didn't seem infected. She cleaned it up with some saline and redressed it with bacta. "You want an analgesic?"

Eeth hesitated for a moment. Then he said, "Yes. I have drawn on the Force for pain relief all day. Continuing to do so would be too draining."

While he watched her find the analgesic hypospray in the medkit, the conversation they had had replayed in his head. He had the feeling that he had not handled it very well.

"Padawan," he said quietly, "do you really feel as if I would swap apprentices in a heartbeat?"

"No," Raven admitted, pressing the hypo to his upper arm and then again just below. "But sometimes it feels like you would. I'm not as good as Endal, and you seem to love spending time with him. He's learning everything faster than I do. Who wouldn't want to be around a padawan like that?!"

"Well, I certainly do not mind being around Endal," Eeth said, being his usual honest self. "But nor do I mind being around you. It is simply not true that Endal is better at everything than you. There are a great many things that you do better than him, and if you are honest with yourself, you know it. But that is beside the point. Even if he were better than you at most things, which he is not, that would be no reason for me to prefer him over you. It does not work like that with parents and children, or so I have heard. Nor does it work like that with masters and padawans. For one thing, our pairing was Force-willed. For another thing, the bond that grows between a master and his padawan goes beyond their relationship in the Force. You cannot raise a padawan without developing an emotional attachment. I certainly have done so, padawan."

Raven's fingers paused briefly in her ministrations, but she was fast to cover it. Eeth had all but said he felt love for her. Instinctively she knew that he did, and that fact reassured her because although she believed that Endal surpassed her in everything that meant anything to Eeth, Raven felt the legitimacy behind those few words. "I love you too," she said honestly and unabashedly. "But I guess you already know that or I wouldn't care what you thought of me." Raven tied off the bandage and started putting things back in the medical kit. She felt better for having confided in him now, which was more than she had thought possible to begin with.

"I do," said Eeth gently. "And I care about you a great deal. That is why I arranged for Drkai to work with you – not because I want to see your back but because I want you to learn and grow."

He flexed his arm and found that the pain was receding. He was going to be able to give Raven the promised workout, even if he was forced to remain inactive.

Eeth took Raven down to the creek where he sat down on the grassy slope.

"Pull off your boots and get into the water," he instructed his padawan. "It is quite warm and not very deep, but be mindful not to slip. I want you to get used to sparring in natural environments. As I am unable to spar with you today, we will have to make do with kata. Start with the seventh, then we will work our way up."

Wanting to improve her behaviour, Raven pulled off her boots and then stood to pull off her trousers only to be stopped by Eeth.

"Leave them on. If you ever find yourself having to fight in a creek, you probably will not have time to adjust your clothing," he said.

Raven just looked at him, her expression sceptical, but plunged into the water all the same. It was only ankle-deep, yet she could see pockets of darker-coloured water that suggested potholes. "What if water gets in my saber?" Raven asked, her stance a good deal stiffer than was typical for her.

"Padawan, the water hardly reaches the hem of your pants," Eeth pointed out. "Unless you step into a pothole, of course. So you had better avoid stepping into a pothole."

"Great, so the life of my saber is reliant on my oh so reliable ability to sense inanimate objects... that's just peachy!" Raven thought. The seventh kata did not contain many aerial techniques and focused more on smooth transitions between attacking and defending stances; hence it was the perfect kata to begin with, given that she was standing in water. Raven held each position for a moment longer than she usually would, attempting to detect pockets that might try to drown her saber; she was not frying her lightsaber over something like this, it just wasn't going to happen!

* * *

Over the next few days, the Jedi hopped from region to region, documenting their finds as they went. Raven had done her best to accept that she was being overly possessive of Eeth's attention and that her jealousy was, although felt, perhaps not entirely valid. Drkai and Raven discovered several undocumented species on their ventures, while Eeth and Endal continued their work examining the flora. Much to Raven's delight, on the fifth day, when they had made camp in a rainforest area that boarded the coastline, Endal discovered a berry that tasted like chocolate.

"Let's get more of these after lunch. It's healthy and tastes amazing. How can you go wrong here?" Raven said to Endal.

"Sure," Endal agreed lazily, not moving an inch from where he was lying starfished on his meditation mat under the canopy of trees at the beachside. "I can show you. If I can bring myself to get up, that is."

After having explored the local flora for several hours during the morning, Eeth had run him ragged with a workout on the beach. The wound on Eeth's arm had completely closed, thanks to bacta, and with his replenished energy levels, he had chased Endal through the sand until the boy's legs were buckling under him with exhaustion. He had never known that sand could be so unenjoyable! Additionally, since having arrived at the beach, they had started each of their mornings with a swim, which Endal had initially thought would be fun; but he had found that Eeth could turn anything into a demanding task!

"Eat up," Drkai gestured to Raven's barely-touched lunch. "You are going to need your energy stores over the next day or so."

"How so?" Raven's asked, her curiosity piqued.

"This afternoon, we'll head east, which is mostly hilly. Tomorrow we'll go north and inland. There is an area on the topmost part of the landmass that is quite difficult to access, and, if studies of previous ecosystems are anything to go by, places like these typically host large, dangerous predators. We will take the shuttle most of the way and will travel on foot once we reach the perimeter."

"Ah," Raven nodded, thinking of the sorts of predators that might warrant such precautions. As inappropriate as this was, she felt excited.

While listening to their conversation, Eeth experimentally cut up a small, brownish, unimpressive-looking fruit that he and Endal had harvested this morning and mixed it with his stew. He tasted it, raised his eyebrows and tossed another piece of fruit to Raven.

"Cut this up and mix it with your food," he advised her. "It is nutritious, and it also has an interesting taste. Our food will certainly be less bland with it."

He pushed the rest of the pile into the middle for Endal and Drkai to serve themselves.

Drkai leant forward, taking two and offering one to Endal.

"Force, I love this planet!" declared Raven after tasting the brown fruit. It was a unique flavour, both sweet and spicy at the same time. "What else did you two find today? Anything else like those chocolate berries?"

"Not quite," said Eeth, "but like most tropical climate zones, this one has a lot to offer. We did not nearly have enough time to test it all. We found a number of fruit, some very nutritious tubers, water plants with leaves that taste sour and slightly sweet, a type of large nut with a soft inside, and a fleshy edible flower. Endal and I are also going to try and catch some fish for dinner."

Which was what he and Endal did while Drkai and Raven explored the hills to the east. They were quite successful and thus able to produce an unusually tasty dinner that night. It combined nearly all the plants Eeth had mentioned to Raven during lunch, with a stir-fried dish of tubers and grated nuts, covered with flowers; fried fish; a salad of water plant leaves; and fruit salad for dessert. All this was served at a campfire at the beach. The area had been entirely free of predators so far. Life was good, Endal thought as he stretched out beside the fire comfortably, his belly full, the air warm and the sky above sparkling with stars.

Raven stretched out beside Endal, comfortably full, and for once, her thoughts were in the moment. "I could lie here all night," she said loudly enough to be overheard by Eeth and Drkai. She had a feeling that they were going to be shooed off to meditate and sleep soon, and hoped that by stating how wonderful an experience this was, it might just persuade their masters to overlook the usual bedtime.

"The tide will turn around midnight," Eeth pointed out. "You would get drenched. And even if you moved closer to the edge of the woods, there is a risk of predators. A lot of them are night-active, and we know by now that at least one local species is not afraid of attacking humanoids. I do not fancy a repeat occurrence."

"Oh." Raven sighed. "Well, if you think so." Closing her eyes, she focused on the sound of waves crashing on the beach. "Do you know any of the Jedi teams assigned to the aquatic regions of this planet?" she asked curiously. "Because how cool would it be to meet up with them and hear their stories." Raven was, of course, thinking about possible sea monsters that they might encounter here and started running through a mental list of all the scariest: opee sea killers, colo claw fish, sando aqua monsters! Her imagination was going crazy, and as a result, she pulled her feet up because you just never knew when one of those might pop up.

"Yes," Eeth replied. "They have been here for a while already. The oceans are much larger than this landmass. The teams are composed of Nautolans, Mon Calamari and Ishi Tib. They are currently underwater on the other side of the planet, but we are scheduled to meet up with them three weeks from now."

"I can't wait," replied Raven.

Half an hour later, Endal and Raven were still sprawled out, only now they were looking at clouds.

"That one looks like Yarael Poof. Look, it's almost a snapshot," Raven pointed to a long thin cloud with a ball at one end, and was pleased when Endal found it.

Drkai shook her head at the padawans' conversation, yawned and put her datapad aside. She had spent the better part of the evening finishing research for their trip tomorrow and was finally satisfied that they were going in well-prepared. "We should make it back by late afternoon, but I will contact you if we run into any delays," Drkai informed Eeth and stretched her arms up over her head. "We will have to leave at first light so you might want to have Raven turn in early."

Eeth nodded.

"Five more minutes, padawan," he called. "Then evening meditation, then bed. And you, padawan Endal, might be well-advised to turn in early as well. We will get up tomorrow morning with the other two and put in an early morning workout session."

"Yes, master," replied Raven with a yawn, while Endal groaned.

"Why?" he complained. "Does a workout get any more efficient just because it's even more torturous to me than usual?"

"It does," Eeth replied, his face impassive.

"How so?" Endal inquired, sitting up and turning towards him.

"In real life," Eeth said evenly, "no opponent is going to care whether you are well-rested. Being a Jedi might mean missing out on sleep occasionally. Get used to it."

Endal rolled his eyes, but wisely chose not to comment.

Raven thought she knew how Endal felt and sympathised; she was not a morning person herself despite having to stick to Eeth's military-style regimen.

"Why do we have to get up so early anyway?" Raven asked Drkai, getting to her feet and stretching.

"Because we have a lot of ground to cover and I want to avoid spending the night away from base camp unless absolutely necessary," Drkai answered.

"Fair enough," said Raven; it made sense. Besides, she did not particularly want to be away from her master that long. It wasn't that she thought Drkai incapable; the woman could dissuade an enraged Acklay by raising a finger, but Raven did not feel as grounded with Drkai.

Forty-five minutes later, Raven was tossing and turning in her tent. Tomorrow was going to be awesome, and her mind was racing despite having meditated with her master. After another five minutes of restlessness, Raven stuck her head out of the tent flap to call Eeth but almost bumped heads with the man instead. Although she was doing an admirable job of hiding this, it would have been clear to Eeth that he had just scared the crap out of his padawan.

"If you were mindful of your surroundings, that would not have happened," Eeth said drily. "I was going to see whether you need help falling asleep. Obviously, you do."

He shooed her back into her sleeping bag and sat down next to her, rubbing her back lightly while sending a sleep compulsion through their bond. Five minutes later, she had dozed off and Eeth returned back outside to ask Drkai whether she was up for a sparring session before both of them turned in as well.

* * *

The next morning, dawn had barely risen when Eeth shook Raven awake.

"Padawan," he said, pulling down the zipper of her sleeping bag, "you need to get up. Master Drkai wants to leave in forty-five minutes."

"Gh-hoe,ah-Wh-hay..." Raven mumbled through a yawn, curling into a ball. The sun was not even light yet. Surely he had to have his times wrong.

Mercilessly, Eeth completely opened her sleeping bag and pulled it away from under her.

"Are you getting up or shall I throw you into the sea for an early morning bath?" he asked sternly.

There was a moment of hesitation wherein Raven contemplated the likelihood of Eeth actually following through with that threat. He wouldn't, right? Right! It was far too much effort to go to just to get her out of bed. Besides, her sleepshirt would get all wet. "Just five more minutes," she complained into her pillow and pulled it tightly around her head.

Eeth snatched the pillow away and picked her up effortlessly. "Oh! Force no! Masterrrrr, nooo! C'mon!" Raven bellowed. However, all the flailing of limbs and protesting seemed to fall on deaf ears; or at least as far as Eeth was concerned because Drkai burst from her tent, hand on her saber and wondering what the heck was going on out here. By this stage, Eeth had Raven slung over his shoulder like a bag of flour and was marching towards the edge of the water where he proceeded to drop her in it. It was very shallow, but she was instantly drenched by a wave.

"Breakfast is in ten minutes, padawan," Eeth said curtly, turning on his heel and making for their camp in order to light a fire.

Drkai shook her head. That girl had a death wish, she was quite sure of that. By now, Endal was dressed and had joined her. "Padawan, would you mind helping master Koth with breakfast, please? I need to finish packing." They had already completed their morning meditation and were on schedule.

A couple of minutes later, a drenched, sand-covered Raven strode into the campsite. Her hair looked like a birds' nest, and her sleepshirt was clinging to her like a second skin. She did not look at Eeth or Endal. Given that she was indeed her master's apprentice, she simply jutted out her chin and attempted to look dignified about all of this.

Raven stripped and sat in the bucket of sweet water by her tent, all the while muttering quiet curses about Eeth and where he could shove his lightsaber. It was most unjedilike but served to placate her. When all the sand was finally off her, she towel-dried her hair, changed into a clean uniform and went to find the others again. "Can I help?" Raven asked, finding Eeth and Endal preparing breakfast.

"You may brush your hair," Eeth replied calmly, mixing the fruit salad he had just produced while Endal stirred something porridge-like. "And hang your nightclothes out to dry."

Endal gave Raven a sympathetic look. He was still a bit tired himself, but he usually did not have such a hard time getting out of bed. Nevertheless, he was glad that his master used kinder methods of waking him up!

"And how do you know that I haven't already hung out my nightshirt?" Raven said, her nose still in the air after having been dumped in the water.

"Well, have you?" asked Eeth, raising his eyebrows at her tone.

"No, but you didn't know that for sure."

"Since I did not see you hanging up any clothes, I assumed as much," Eeth replied with a hint of a warning in his voice. "And since I obviously assumed correctly, kindly do as I told you."

Given that Raven had already made his shit list and it was barely dawn, she went to do as asked, all the while silently grumbling about "all-knowing" masters and their "infinite wisdom." She grabbed a brush on the way back to the others and did not refuse when Drkai asked if she wanted help with her hair. "Nothing too crazy, though, right?"

Drkai had to chuckle at that. "Let's aim for functional today."

Raven relaxed. She had always enjoyed the feeling of someone doing her hair for her.

Eeth glanced at the scene while pouring himself some tea. It made him feel a little wistful and he did not know why that was. It was not as if he never did Raven's braid for her. He did not usually brush her hair, though. But then, why should he? She was more than old enough to do this by herself. It had never before occurred to him that she might enjoy it if he did, and he envied Drkai for having realised this so quickly.

They made short work of breakfast. It was too early in the morning for any of them to feel particularly talkative, and so they sat in companionable silence as the sun rose over the ocean, painting the horizon in dazzling shades of orange and pink. When those faded, Eeth finally said, "I believe it is time for us to get going. Endal, we are going into the jungle. I will show you how to climb the trees and move above ground."

Endal groaned, having a sudden mental image of himself dangling from a liana in an ungainly fashion, kicking his legs in an awkward attempt to reach the next tree while Eeth was already making his way to the top of the tree giant in his usual effortless and flawlessly elegant way.

"Problem with that?" Eeth asked mildly, raising his eyebrows.

"Nooooooo," Endal said in a long-suffering tone of voice, and it was quite clear that this was a blatant lie.

"Good," said Eeth calmly, and it was equally clear that he wasn't buying the lie for one second. "Because if you do, it just means that you will have to build up more muscle power. There are various effective ways to achieve that goal. We can try some of them today if you like."

Endal's mental picture was replaced by one of himself wearing a huge backpack full of stones, trying futilely to pull himself up a liana. It made him reply very quickly and far more convincingly, "No, Master Koth, that won't be necessary. Climbing is fine."

Raven tutted. "Don't be like that. You've already eaten your quota of children for one day," she told Eeth, a very slight smile on her face as she stuffed gadgets into her pant pocket.

"I have not," said Eeth, "but I will if you keep this up." He could not help but smile a little, though. Actually, Endal had made a lot of progress over the past two weeks; he was already considerably stronger, faster and more agile than he had been. Eeth had no intention of torturing him unduly. Fortunately, it was usually sufficient for him to utter a hint of a threat in order to achieve full compliance from Endal. He just wished full compliance was so easy to achieve in his own padawan!

Drkai enjoyed the banter between master and padawan; it was nice to see that Eeth sometimes possessed a slight sense of humour.

* * *

"Mind master Koth's orders, be safe and may the Force be with you, padawan," Drkai told Endal, offering him a hug as she had done each day before they parted ways.

"And with you, master," Endal said. "Have fun!"

Meanwhile, Eeth said to Raven, "I want you to obey Master Drkai in all things, padawan. Without an argument. Now go and join her; she is ready to leave. I hope you are going to have a successful day and learn a lot. May the Force be with you."

The sun was rising over the sea as Eeth led Endal towards the jungle while the speeder carrying Drkai and Raven took off.

"There are a couple of things we need to go over before we get into this," Drkai said to Raven who was sitting next to her in the speeder. "As I mentioned last night, today we're heading into a remote area of the rainforest which means we'll be relying on Force-enhanced speed to make the distances where taking a speeder won't be possible. It's also going to be important that we exercise caution. This type of biome often produces the bothersome sort of predators."

"Like what?" Raven interrupted. Her imagination was filled with scenes of Acklay shooting Force lightning out their mouths, and apparently, her face said it all because Drkai chuckled.

"You know, most sane people don't find the idea of facing off against predators exciting," said Drkai, and Raven had the good grace to blush, if only slightly. "I suspect it's most likely going to be packs of drox or drox-like creatures that cause us issues if there are any."

"Drox? What are those?" Raven asked.

"They are half wolf and half bear in appearance, but move like fast, agile dogs," explained Drkai. "There are variations from place to place. The danger for us is they run in large packs and are usually resistant to Force manipulation."

"Peachy… How are we meant to stop them from eating us if we can't use the Force?" Raven knew of many species that were not susceptible to Force wielders, and the idea of running into a pack of these things out here suddenly didn't sound as appealing as it had at first.

"We need to be smarter, which shouldn't be difficult. The species aren't exactly bright. However, what they lack in intelligence, they make up for with keen senses. Very well-adapted predators, indeed," Drkai mused.

The two travelled for just over an hour before Drkai pulled the speeder over and they continued on foot. Their morning was productive. They found a few new species of insects, thankfully not giant-sized this time, as well as several harmless aquatic and avian creatures that were positively fascinating.

"You're doing well keeping up. Do you need longer to rest? Be honest," said Drkai. The two had stopped for lunch and a well-earned break, but they could afford to spend longer if Raven needed more time to recover.

"No, I'm good. Let's go." Raven loved the activity but had to admit, if only to herself, that this was a lot harder going than she anticipated. Still, it was nothing she couldn't handle. She stood and started checking around for rubbish when suddenly Drkai paused in a way that drew Raven's immediate attention. "What is it?" Raven whispered, hand on her saber and senses reaching out. It was there, or more like it was NOT there because what Raven sensed, or didn't sense, were several pockets of what could only be explained as voids in the Force. They were definitely there, though!

"Get up the tree and stay there. I will follow. Go," Drkai ordered quietly.

Raven obeyed reflexively, using the Force to launch herself onto a thick limb about ten metres up.

Yep, Drkai had thought that today had been too good to be true. She and Raven sat up that tree in complete silence for a good twenty minutes before the pack of drox finally grew tired of looking for them and left. "Stay here. I'm going to make sure they're far enough away that they don't catch wind of our scent," Drkai whispered, and Raven nodded.

The moment Drkai hit the ground, she knew that something wasn't right. There were three voids, slightly different to those she had sensed before, lingering about 30 metres away, probably hoping that the food they'd smelled earlier was going to return. Luckily, none of them had picked up her scent and they were moving further away, trailing behind the pack. She was about to jump back up into the tree to tell Raven they needed to wait a bit longer when the girl landed behind her with a thump.

"They're well out of our sight now. I had a clear view from above, and I sense nothing else around," Raven whispered.

Drkai froze, her senses outstretched. Just as she feared, the now amplified scent of two humanoids had been detected by the three drox and they were heading back. Without a word, Drkai tucked Raven into her side and, with speed and power only achievable through the Force, leapt back into the tree.

Raven 'ooffed' as she felt the wind knocked out of her. "What are–" but she didn't get to finish that question because Drkai cupped a hand over her mouth, a finger raised to her lips in the universal gesture for silence. Seconds later, three drox burst back into their line of sight, teeth bared and hackles raised. They were a lot faster than Drkai had anticipated, and they were also a lot smarter. Apparently, the three were shielding somehow, making their lack of presence harder to detect! Thankfully for the Jedi, they still did not think to look up. Small mercies, thought Drkai. Unfortunately, they were stuck up here for another undefined period of time; time that they didn't have to waste!

As it turned out, the entire pack returned for another search and this time it took a full hour before they finally lost interest again. Drkai just glared at Raven. "Stay. Here," she said quietly, but this time Raven's muted nod was not going to cut it. "Do you understand?"

Raven thought that a little patronising was the least she had coming. "Yes, Master Luthan."

Placated, Drkai dropped silently from the tree for the second time this day and started scanning the area. This time she made sure that none of them were hanging back. That had been entirely unexpected, which further unsettled the Jedi; never assume anything, she chided herself. Satisfied that the pack had indeed moved on, Drkai summoned Raven from her perch.

"I'm sorry, that was probably my fault," Raven said sheepishly.

"It was _probably_ your fault?" Drkai looked incredulous.

"Okay, so it _was_ my fault, but I thought–"

"No," Drkai cut her off. "I gave you an order, you don't get to think. Your disobedience endangered all of us."

"All of us?" Raven was puzzled, and then it clicked; she had endangered the drox also. Now Raven felt even worse! "Oh. I didn't want to endanger any of us, and I honestly thought they were far enough away. Those three didn't feel like the others," she admitted.

"No," agreed Drkai, looking thoughtful. "They were shielding. Whether it was intentional or simply a mutation is yet to be seen."

"Have you come across this before?" Because Raven thought the concept was fascinating. A creature that could create a faux presence in the Force to mask their lack thereof was, yeah, wow.

Drkai shook her head. "This is new to me. We'll make notes later. Thanks to your disobedience, we have lost an hour, and we'll need to move faster lest we are stuck out here for the night."

Raven nodded guiltily, and her pitiful expression got the better of Drkai.

"You are a young Jedi and mustn't allow setbacks to stand in the way of your duty. You've done well so far. C'mon, don't let this snowball; I need your help. Let's go."

Despite Drkai's words, Raven felt like she wanted to cry, yet a year of training with Eeth meant that it took quite a bit to bring her unstuck. Thus, she nodded curtly and put their mission first; it was what

Eeth would do and Raven did want to be like her master.

* * *

Raven spent the rest of that day doing her absolute best to make up for having caused trouble earlier. She dutifully recorded their observations, took samples, obeyed orders immediately and to the letter, all with renewed enthusiasm. By the day's end, they were sitting by a small body of water, shaded by purple-barked trees that looked like Massassi.

"We will take a quick break, and then we're heading back to the speeder," said Drkai, looking skyward. "There's a storm coming over, and we do not want to be stuck out here when it does." Drkai held out several energy bars to Raven, unsurprised to see that she took them all and tore into them eagerly. Today would have been challenging even for a much older padawan, yet despite being understandably reserved, Raven had done her duty and kept up without complaining. She had not even brought up the incident with the Drox, even though Drkai knew that it would be on her mind. All in all, she was rather impressed with Raven's performance, which was why, when they reached the camp late that afternoon, Drkai was not going to make her wait.

"Come sit with me," Drkai said, gesturing to the logs that Eeth and Endal had rolled around their campfire to act as seats. "Before anything else, I think it is important to mention that the incident with the drox notwithstanding, you did well today. You were mindful, diligent and I honestly could not have hoped for a better assistant."

The praise came as a surprise. Raven had been expecting some sort of seething lecture on the duty of obedience that left her ready to throw herself on her lightsaber. "Thanks. I don't suppose that you could take that into consideration when we start talking about the stuff that didn't go so well? Perhaps they cancel each other out?" Had this been Eeth, Raven would be sure of the answer, and it would not be delivered mildly. But this wasn't Eeth, and although Raven did not expect to get away with this, it was worth saying if only to put a light spin on what was sure to be a dark discussion.

Drkai pursed her lips. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Well, given that you haven't accepted my apology yet, I guess not?" Raven hedged.

"You guessed right. You disobeyed me, endangered lives and cost us valuable time we did not have to waste. Don't you think that deserves punishment?" Drkai asked, honestly curious to know the padawan's thoughts on this.

Raven sighed. "Yes, I do, but I just don't like it is all," came the unenthused reply.

"I hate to break this to you, but you're not meant to like it. That's the point of punishment. I would, however, like it very much if you learned from your mistakes. This is a mission, not a training simulation; we don't get do-overs. I can't protect you or complete our objectives effectively if you don't obey me, which is why this is such an important lesson to learn, and why I'm not going to let you off easy. So, let's not drag this out. Is there anything you want to discuss before we deal with this?"

Raven looked down at the dirt and shook her head; guilt was written all over her face.

When Drkai stood, Raven followed suit. She figured that whatever was about to go down would involve her cooperation and, at the least, bending over something. The padawan fervently hoped it was going to be Drkai's lap. However, those hopes were dashed when Drkai led her to the small, but sturdy foldable table that they used to dissect their specimens and started unclipping things from her belt. "Pants down and bend over the table," she said without preamble, and Raven's face fell.

At this moment, Raven was just glad that Eeth and Endal were still out! Not that catching it with an audience was new to the girl. Heck, Eeth had spanked her with that damned paddle he carried around with him in two different garages at the Temple, not to mention a couple of corridors and classrooms. As she complied with Drkai's orders, her mind raced with thoughts of what Eeth was going to make of this. He was going to kill her. Well, not literally, but he might just make her feel so bad that she wished death had been an option available to her. That thought didn't get much time to depress her, though, as a moment later she felt Drkai flip up her tunic and then her underwear came down to join her trousers. Great, bare-assed, this was going to sting like a fucker. And sure enough, by the time Drkai had scorched her ass with that belt for the tenth time, Raven was sniffling and gripping on to the table's edge like it was a lifeline.

"That was for disobeying me and needlessly endangering lives," said Drkai, bringing Raven's attention from the pain exploding across her ass in thick waves, back to the reason she was feeling it. Raven was about to reply with something suitably humble when she felt Drkai's hand pressing on her lower back again. Oh no, there was more! Raven tried to brace herself, but it was no good. It didn't matter how she cried, yelled, pleaded or angled herself, that damned belt whipped her bare ass another five agonising times.

"And that was for costing us an hour of our mission time," Drkai said with a note of finality to her tone.

Raven's face was tear-streaked and flushed, and her snot and tears had made a mess on the table and her ass. Force. Her ass ached, stung and burned all at once. It was humiliating to be crying like this in front of someone who wasn't Eeth, and so Raven remained there even after Drkai had laid her belt on the table.

Drkai knew how Raven felt because she had been there herself. She patted her back gently, allowing the girl time to work through the anger, humiliation and pain. When the hiccoughing had settled and her cries reduced to sniffles, Drkai flipped her tunic down and pulled a hanky from her pocket. "That's enough of that now. Time to clean yourself up and move on." It was said kindly, and Raven could hear genuine sincerity in her tone.

Despite feeling as though she had not forgiven Drkai yet, Raven peeled herself off the table and tried to stand tall. It was hard to look dignified while standing there wiping your face with a hanky, a tangle of clothing bunched at your ankles and the occasional hiccough still catching you off guard. Raven did her best to fix herself up, although she did not appreciate pulling up her pants. It hurt.

Drkai could sympathise, but she would do it again if it meant Raven learned this lesson. She wrapped her arms around the padawan, pulling her into a heartfelt hug.

How the adults in her life managed to go from fierce, belt-wielding vessels of torture one minute to kindly caregivers the next was beyond the girl. Raven didn't care, though. She was content to be held, allowing the older Jedi to comfort her. After a while, Raven released herself from Drkai and straightened up. "I'm sorry, Master Luthan. It won't happen again." Eeth always reacted positively when she said that and she hoped that Drkai would appreciate it too.

"Apology accepted," Drkai replied softly. "I want you to go to your tent and meditate on obedience until your master comes for you. And when he does, you're going to tell him what happened today and the consequences it earned you. Then, you're going to tell him that I'm leaving it up to him to decide whether or not you have been punished enough. Alright?"

Raven's face fell at hearing that, and had her ass not hurt so much, she might have given some token protest. As it stood, there was no way anything other than "Yes, Master Luthan," was coming out of her mouth. Raven offered a slight bow and limped into her tent, relieved to be allowed some privacy and time alone, even if it had to be spent meditating. Raven tried not to think about Eeth's reaction to this and focus on her meditation, but it was hard. Her ass hurt, and kneeling on her rollup mattress with no wall to lean on was not exactly comfortable, yet lying on her tummy and falling asleep would be much worse. Eeth wouldn't spank her again after a belting like that, she was quite sure of that. Then, there was more than one way to skin a cat…


	8. Chapter 8

Eeth and Endal spent most of their day in the treetops which formed a natural environment of its own. To his surprise, Endal found that this was actually fun, especially as their day offered more opportunities for research than he had thought it would. Even the climbing part was moderately enjoyable – well, at least during the first half of the day. Throughout the afternoon, Eeth drove him to the point at which he could hardly feel his arms anymore. His limbs were practically shaking from exhaustion by the time he dragged himself back to the campsite at sunset. He was eternally grateful that Eeth had taken over all of the bags and boxes with their findings without mentioning it.

"Hello, master," he said wearily when they arrived at the campsite. He made for their tent and flopped down immediately with no intention ever to get back up.

"Good evening, Drkai," Eeth said, giving his fellow Jedi a small smile as he dropped their equipment. "Is my padawan as tired as yours?"

Drkai took in the state of said padawan; he had not even bothered to zip the insect netting closed after face-planting into the tent, so she did so for him. She gave Eeth an amused look and filled four cups of sweet water from the bucket that she had refilled a moment ago, dropping a couple of electrolyte pills into each. "I wouldn't say that I made her as tired as Endal feels after a day with you, although I believe I might have worn her out." At Eeth's raised eyebrows, Drkai continued. "We had a bit of a problem this morning that I have dealt with. She's in her tent meditating on obedience and most likely feeling sore and sorry for herself. I've instructed her to talk to you about it, so unless you want to hear from me first, I'll leave it to your padawan to explain the details." Drkai handed him two of the four cups, one for himself and one for Raven. They had done a lot of Force work today, and the girl was no doubt starting to feel the effects of that drain in addition to the rest of her woes.

Eeth nodded in acknowledgement of Drkai's account and drained his own cup.

"Thank you," he said. "If you feel up to it, I would be grateful if you could take care of dinner." After having received an affirmative answer, he went through their supplies for an energy bar and then took both the snack and the cup to the tent he shared with Raven.

"Padawan, you may stop meditating now," he told her. "Eat and drink something before we talk." He held out the cup to her, as well as the energy bar.

Grateful to be released from the meditation, Raven set the cup aside and tore the wrapper off her energy bar with her teeth. She wasn't starving, far from it, but today had taken it out of her and, well, if it meant she didn't have to talk for a while, then all the better.

Eeth waited patiently until she had eaten a few bites. He was not going to allow her to use this as an excuse to postpone talking to him, however.

"Padawan, look at me," Eeth said. He said it calmly and quietly, but it was clearly an order. Raven moved her eyes, but nothing else; she did not want to look at him and wanted to tell him the story even less.

Eeth assumed as much but he felt no inclination to indulge her. "Tell me what happened today that made Master Luthan banish you to your tent to meditate on obedience," he instructed, holding her gaze with his black eyes.

Raven sighed and rested back onto her heels. It wasn't comfortable, her ass hurt, but at least the surface level discomfort was beginning to give way to a deep muscular ache which was more comfortable to sit on. "I disobeyed Master Luthan, and because of that, I risked lives and cost us time that we didn't have to lose." Raven went on to explain the details to Eeth, how she had dropped from the tree despite being told not to, and how she had not sensed the three drox who had felt so different in the Force. When she was done, Raven felt about as bad as she had before Drkai had walloped her. She looked up, her expression pitiful. "I'm sorry, master. I want to be as good a Jedi as you are, but…" She refrained from saying that she 'sucked', if only because she knew that Eeth would not approve. "I'm not doing a very good job of that," she concluded.

Eeth was silent for a moment, pondering how best to reply to this. "Padawan," he finally said. "I am hardly perfect; I have my faults, just like you do. What is important is to tackle these faults and try to improve yourself. For you, that first and foremost concerns your unfortunate tendency to put your own judgment above the orders your superiors give you. And you know that I can and will not let that pass."

"But, what do you mean by that?" Raven looked a little panicked now. "Drkai already walloped me with her belt. And I'm not exaggerating this time, it really did hurt!" She rose up on her knees and twisted, pulling her trousers and underpants down on one side to reveal her left ass cheek just in case he didn't believe her. "Fifteen times!" And sure enough you could see outlines from the edges of Drkai's belt mixed in with the overall pinkness of the rest of her ass cheek.

"And when she instructed you to tell me about it," said Eeth neutrally, "did she also say that you have been punished enough?" Because if that was the case, he was not going to interfere. But only then!

Raven gave him a pained expression. "She might have said that I had to tell you that it was up to you to decide that. But, Master," Raven let go of her waistband, wincing as the underwear and trousers snapped back. "I _have_ been punished enough. Please, can't you just leave it at that? I've learned, really I have. I'll never do it again, I swear it." Raven put her hand on her heart, not pulling any punches here. She did not want Eeth adding to this because whatever he came up with was going to be horrifying.

"That," said Eeth sternly, "is not up to you to decide. You disobeyed a Jedi master during a mission and risked lives in the process. This is a serious transgression and deserves a punishment that leaves a lasting impression. What you have received from Master Luthan is a start but it will not be the end of it. And I assume that Master Luthan agrees with me or she would not have left it up to me to add to what she dealt out."

He raised his hand to still Raven's protests. "This is what is going to happen," he said in a voice that brooked no objection. "You will go to bed right after dinner. Tomorrow, you will spend the entire day in our tent while Endal, Master Drkai and I wrap up this part of the mission. You will do schoolwork, and you will meditate. If you even think about whining or complaining, you will write lines instead. And you will do all of that on a sore bottom which I will provide you with tomorrow morning. Maybe this punishment will teach you a little more patience and self-control than you have displayed today."

The shocked and horrified expression on Raven's face said it all. And if hearing that she'd be getting spanked and then confined to their tent all day wasn't bad enough, apparently he wasn't even allowing her to complain lest it become worse. "I-but. You, you can't, please. Our mission." Raven had expected that to come out as outrage yet her tone had been more like a whimper.

"Our mission," said Eeth, "will benefit greatly from a padawan who has learned to control her impulses. Which is why I absolutely can and will impose this punishment. And unless you want to start writing lines right this moment, you had better keep your complaints to yourself. Now, I will help Master Luthan with dinner. You may come out when I call you."

Raven remained silent, her expression heartbroken, and once Eeth left the tent, she curled into her sleeping bag to cry. This was the worst punishment she could imagine!

"May I help?" Eeth asked Drkai, sitting down opposite her at the fire.

Drkai offered a sympathetic smile and handed him the spoon she was using to stir the stew. She had put together a bunch of leftovers and some of the food Eeth and Endal had gathered as they would most likely be moving on shortly. "I don't want to impose, but if I can help in some way, don't hesitate to ask me," Drkai offered sincerely. Raven had not exactly been shielding, and she could have sensed the girl's misery from Coruscant; whatever Eeth had said had gone down like a lead balloon.

"Thank you," Eeth replied. "I appreciate the offer. I am fine, though. My padawan is merely unhappy because she did not like the punishment she received. That is hardly the end of the world. She brought it upon herself and will have to learn to deal with it."

He paused for a moment and then said more quietly, "I do not exactly enjoy having to punish her. But I strongly feel that she needs to learn this lesson. She has a history of disobeying orders because she thinks she knows better, and if that continues, she will keep endangering herself and others."

Drkai nodded her agreement and set a basket of vegetables over a pot to steam. "She is headstrong. You're a good master, Eeth. You'll do what's best for her and Raven knows that, even though it might be hard for her to think that way at the moment." Dinner would be ready shortly, and so she stood and brushed herself off. "I shall spend some time with my padawan who will no doubt be unimpressed at having his sleep interrupted. The life of a padawan is so hard sometimes, how did we ever survive it?" she joked and left for their tent.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. He had never thought of his life as a padawan as particularly hard. After all, his life before he had come to the Temple had been infinitely harder. He busied himself setting out a stack of bowls, spoons and cups, stirring the stew occasionally while he did so. He was going to give Raven some more time to reflect on her punishment and come to terms with it while dinner was cooking. Besides, he suspected that Drkai might have her work cut out for her trying to wake Endal. The boy had truly been exhausted.

Drkai opened the insect fly on their tent and zipped it shut behind her. There were a lot of insects around, especially so at dusk. She sat down by Endal's side and gently patted his back. "Time to wake up," she told him.

Endal groaned and pulled the pillow over his head. "I'm not hungry," he murmured. "Just tired and sore. Let me sleep?"

"I know you are," Drkai said sympathetically. "We'll do some meditation to help with that now, and before bed, I'll give you a massage." Drkai pulled the pillow from his head and sat cross-legged.

Endal groaned again. "If you insist…" he grumbled, half turning around to demonstrate compliance. "But why do I have to? What's wrong with getting enough sleep? We got up at the crack of dawn and I had to climb the entire day."

"Because you have responsibilities. Besides, If you sleep any longer, you won't sleep tonight. Come on, drink this and we will meditate. We only have half an hour or so before dinner will be ready." Drkai handed him the cup of electrolytes and waited.

Endal rubbed his eyes. "I _so _will be able to sleep tonight," he complained. But he said it quietly, drank up the electrolytes and obediently sat where his master had indicated. Once he had done so, she led him through a meditation that would help replenish his reserves.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the stew was ready. Eeth went to Endal's and Drkai's tent first to inform them and then proceeded to his and Raven's.

"Padawan, come out for dinner," he said, sticking his head into the tent.

Raven didn't need telling twice. After all, she was going to be stuck in this tent for thirty-six hours. "Force, criminals do less time than that for actual crimes," she thought but wisely kept any comments about the unfairness of this to herself. Dinner looked and smelled good. In fact, Raven had yet to have anything that tasted bad since landing on this planet. Sure, the energy bars tasted bland; most of them did, though. Raven sat on the log, somewhat uncomfortably, and waited for Drkai and Endal to join them so she could eat.

Eeth asked Endal to tell Drkai and Raven about their findings.

"How about you?" he asked the two of them once Endal was done. "What did you find, other than a pack of drox?"

Drkai looked over at Raven who had been uncharacteristically silent for most of their meal. When the girl just shrugged in response, Drkai answered for her. "Quite a bit." She went on to outline the aquatic and avian creatures that they had found, as well as the thankfully smaller species of insect that had yet to be documented anywhere. This planet did come up with some interesting animal life, that much was certain.

Throughout the conversation, Raven wasn't rude, per se, she was just entirely uninterested in faking cheerfulness when all she had to look forward to was classwork in a tent. She did answer questions when they were directed at her, but that was about the extent of it.

Eeth decided to indulge this as long as she did not cross the line of acceptable behaviour. He was not going to allow her to play with her food indefinitely just in order to postpone her early bedtime, though.

"Padawan, finish your vegetables and off to bed with you," he said.

Endal looked from him to his master to Eeth to get a clue what was going on.

"It's not nearly our bedtime yet," he pointed out.

"True," Eeth replied calmly. "That's why I did not tell _you_ to go to bed. I told it to my padawan."

Drkai noticed Endal's confusion and gave him a look that clearly said he should desist. She backed this up with the same across their bond. Endal got the hint and refrained from saying anything more.

Raven's jaw clenched briefly, and then she relaxed it; it wasn't Drkai or Endal's fault. It wasn't really Eeth's fault either, yet it was much easier to blame him.

She ate the last of her vegetables, washed her bowl, offered a brief goodnight to Drkai and Endal and stomped off to their tent. Her mood did not improve upon recalling that her nightshirt was still drying several metres up a tree, and she'd have to retrieve it.

Eeth gave her ten minutes to get ready for bed and then followed her to their tent.

"Time for our evening meditation, padawan," he said evenly. "I suggest you use it to rid yourself of your negative emotions, else the day you have ahead of you will become more difficult than necessary."

"Yes, master," Raven replied, but it was clear that her words were just that. She knelt, closed her eyes and allowed Eeth to lead her through their meditation.

Eeth normally expected more than token compliance but tonight, he felt that it was all Raven could handle. At least she had managed to refrain from whining or protesting so far, which was more than he would have expected a few months ago. Besides, meditation was going to help, whether she was enthusiastic about it or not.

Finally, he released her from the meditative trance and said, "Do you need some healing before you go to sleep?" After all, she had received a punishment from Drkai that, while not spectacular by Eeth's standards, had been more than enough to leave a lasting impression.

Despite wanting to maintain her aloof attitude, when Raven opened her eyes and looked at Eeth, she couldn't find it in herself to keep blaming him for this. Yes, she wasn't happy with Eeth's punishment, but she would accept healing and try to wake up in a more accepting frame of mind. Thus, Raven pulled down her underwear and lay on her belly. "Thanks." It was the first word she had said to him of her own volition since the afternoon, which was somewhat of a record for her.

"You are welcome," said Eeth softly as he let a steady flow of healing energy flow into the punished skin. Five minutes later, he gently patted her back to indicate that he was done.

"Try to get some sleep now, padawan," he said. "It has been a long day. Endal is turning in early as well."

Raven didn't say anything in response to Eeth's comment about Endal. It was hardly reassuring, after all. Instead, she nodded once, curled into her sleeping bag and closed her eyes tightly.

Eeth made to leave the tent but paused before he closed the zipper behind himself. Raven needed him to spend time with her, he reminded himself. That might even be true when she was being punished; or maybe particularly so.

"Will you be able to fall asleep or do you need help?" he asked, turning back towards Raven.

As much as Raven wanted to tell him that she didn't need his help, she really did want it. She sat up on her side, her sleeping bag falling off a bit, and tried not to look piteous. "Please," was all she said.

"Alright," Eeth agreed, sitting back down. "Tell me a little more about your day and the things you have done with Master Luthan, other than jumping from trees when you were not supposed to. It might help you wind down. If it does not, I will provide you with a sleep compulsion."

Raven wasn't exactly in a talkative mood at the moment, but she could appreciate what Eeth was trying to do and so she did spend some time telling him about some cute, fluffy critters that she wanted to bring back to the ship to show everyone. It worked to help her calm down a bit, yet she still accepted the sleep compulsion gratefully and fell asleep, not at all looking forward to the day to come.

* * *

Endal had gone to bed early and woke up correspondingly early. Drkai caught up with him as he silently left the tent. They walked to the beach and took an early morning swim together. Then they prepared breakfast, and while they did, Endal told her some more about what Eeth and he had found during their exploration of the treetops.

Eeth, for his part, had got up even before Endal and gone for a considerably more vigorous swim. The sun was just peeking up on the horizon as he returned. Wringing water from his black hair, he made his way up the beach, greeted Drkai and Endal and proceeded to his tent where he found that Raven had just woken up. "Good morning, padawan," he said. "You may come out to wash, but be quick about it. I will bring you breakfast in twenty minutes."

"You aren't going to let me out to exercise or eat?" Raven asked in a broken tone of voice.

Other masters but Eeth would probably have found it difficult to withstand the desperation in Raven's voice. Eeth being Eeth, however, had no difficulties steeling himself against her desolation, especially since he had been expecting it.

"Padawan, this is punishment," he said. "I told you that you would spend the day in your tent and I meant it. You are allowed to leave it to wash and relieve yourself. If you are very good, you may join us for dinner tonight. Other than that, you are staying inside. If it is any consolation to you, I am going to keep you company for most of the time. Now go and wash yourself, but no dawdling."

Raven felt tears well up in her eyes, and a lump developed in her throat that felt so painful that she had to swallow lest it choke her. Not wanting Eeth to see how badly she was taking this, Raven turned away from him and started rooting through her bag for something to wear. There wasn't much point in dressing in a uniform if Eeth wasn't letting her do anything but sit in the tent. Thus, she grabbed a soft long-sleeved shirt that she often liked to sleep in, some underwear and went to wash up.

As instructed, Raven didn't dawdle, and twenty minutes later, she was back in her tent, bored, unhappy and wishing that she could somehow change Eeth's mind about this without making it worse on herself!

Eeth came in shortly afterwards, carrying a tray with fruit, porridge and tea for two. "Here is breakfast, padawan," he said, setting the tray down onto the tent floor. He sat down cross-legged and motioned for his padawan to do the same. True to his word, he was going to keep her company for much of the day.

Raven was surprised that he sat down opposite her as she had interpreted his comment on spending the day with her as him outside doing useful things, but around to make sure she obeyed him. "I won't leave the tent, you don't need to put yourself out or stick around just to babysit me." Raven knew he'd rather be out having fun with the others. Who wouldn't!

"I know I do not need to," said Eeth, raising his eyebrows. "I had actually been planning on eating with you, however. Do you mind?"

Raven shrugged, trying to look nonplussed even though she was pleased not to be in here alone.

They ate breakfast in silence, a silence that was more comfortable on Eeth's part than on Raven's. When they were done, Eeth said, "You have got a spanking coming to you now. I will take the tray outside and fetch something to sit on. When I come back, I expect you to have a bare bottom." He picked up the tray and made to leave the tent, only to be stopped by Raven's hand on his sleeve.

"No, master… Please don't. Please, you can't." Raven's gaze lowered because after having lasted all this time without uttering a single complaint or resorting to begging, her stoic façade had finally cracked.

"Oh, I can and I will," said Eeth grimly. "This is the last bit of complaining I will tolerate before I add to your punishment. Let go of my sleeve unless you want me to extend the period of your grounding, make you write lines or both."

Raven let go immediately; she did not want lines or an extension! Apparently, he wasn't even going to let her outside long enough to spank her. Raven watched on in silent horror as Eeth left, picked up one of the smaller, single-seat sized logs and started heading back to her tent. Thankfully, Endal and Drkai were not around any longer. They had gone to the edge of the forest where they were collecting wood for a raft they planned on building, or so Raven had overheard. But an audience to her punishment was the last thing on her mind right now. Panicking, the padawan pulled her underpants to her knees, sat back on her heels and pulled her sleeping bag around her, just as Eeth entered the tent with the log.

Eeth set the log down, sat down on it and said without further ado, "Come here and get over my lap, padawan."

Raven huffed, but that was all the protest she was willing to risk before reluctantly shuffling to his side and doing as told. The log wasn't exactly as high as an ordinary chair, and so rather than hanging over Eeth's lap, palms and toes braced against the floor as was typical, she was kind of half-kneeling.

Eeth said, "Padawan, this is a reminder that obedience is not negotiable. Ever. And you should count yourself fortunate that a sore bottom is the worst that resulted from your little escapade yesterday. I want you to remember this when you sit today."

With this, he raised his hand and brought it down across her bottom smartly, but not at full force, drawing a grunt from his padawan. He wanted this spanking to leave behind a lingering sting, but not a bottom so sore that sitting down was going to be agony all day long. It was merely meant to get Raven's attention and focus it onto the fact that she was being punished for serious misconduct. Thus, he continued to spank slowly and methodically, with medium force, until he felt her demeanour shift from grudging recalcitrance to tearful acquiescence. It had not taken long at all, as for Raven, being in this position over her master's lap having her bare backside spanked was sometimes just as bad as the pain it caused!

When she was crying softly and her bottom was a solid shade of pink, he decided that enough was enough. Spending her day in the tent was going to be difficult enough for his padawan as it was. "Alright, padawan, up you get," he said gently, patting her back.

Raven pushed herself upright, still sniffling and breathing in short gasps. She sat back on her heels, wincing slightly and tried to get her sniffling under control. That had not been the worst spanking Eeth had ever given her, not by a long shot, but it had still hurt.

"Time to get started on your schoolwork," said Eeth. "Maths first. I would like you to get the less enjoyable subjects out of the way."

Raven gave him a watery, utterly miserable look; this could not get any worse. Much to her horror the tears started again, and she buried her face in her shirt sleeves.

Eeth rested a hand on her shoulder. "Padawan, you need to learn patience and you need to learn to pull yourself together," he said quietly. "Both those things are as much part of being a Jedi as prowess with a lightsaber is. You need to change your attitude about this punishment. If you think of this whole day as a terrible ordeal and spend every minute of it wishing it were over, you will have a very hard time of it and probably end up being punished more often than once. Try embracing it as what it is meant to be – a learning experience. I know this is hard. But nobody ever pretended that becoming a Jedi was easy. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and be determined to get through it because this is what it takes to reach your goal."

"I know," Raven whined, because, well, she _DID_ know. It just didn't make it any easier. Resigned, she pulled up her underpants, summoned her datapad and lay on her tummy to start.

The work itself sucked; it really did… But having Eeth around to help made it bearable. They worked solidly for several hours before all the lying around started to get to Raven. "I need to pee," she stated, thankful that it was actually true.

"Go ahead," Eeth said. "You may have a fifteen-minute break. I will start preparing lunch in the meanwhile." He rose, his hand brushing against her cheek affectionately.

"You have done quite well so far," he said as an afterthought as he left the tent. If she managed to get through the afternoon just as well, he was going to let her leave the tent for dinner and grant her a workout session afterwards, but he purposely did not tell her. This was punishment, and he wanted her to behave as was expected of her without the promise of a reward.

Raven was surprised to receive this praise from Eeth; it made her smile in spite of the fact that she was frustrated. The freedom felt amazing! The air was amazing! And Force help her if she ever took a minute of sunshine for granted ever again! Anyone would think the girl had been in prison for a year by the way she cartwheeled, tumbled, flipped and sprang her way towards the trees to relieve herself. She wasn't exactly looking forward to returning to the mundane, but had to admit that getting to spend this time with her master was making it bearable.

By the time Raven returned, Eeth had prepared a quick lunch of sandwiches from pre-packaged bread, filled with local vegetables that he had fried and conserved in oil the night before.

"After lunch, get started on biology," he said. "You should be able to complete your assignment on zoological taxonomy by mid-afternoon. I will have to do some work for the next two hours or so but I will stay close by in case you need help." Since she had got the subjects she least enjoyed out of the way during the morning, he felt that they might move gradually on to more enjoyable tasks.

Raven didn't mind biology, and she already knew quite a bit about zoological taxonomy, so this assignment wasn't at all difficult for her. Being confined to her tent for this long, however, was difficult, and it became more so with Eeth's absence. By the time Raven finished that assignment, she was miserable. It just wasn't in her nature to be confined despite how hard she was trying to rise above it.

Eeth checked her work and was satisfied with it. "Take a break," he said. "You did a good job." He produced a sweet nut bar from one of his bags (chocolate would have melted in this climate!) and handed it to her. "Stay in the tent," he said. "Do some stretching exercises or take a nap. I need to check the comm and plot our course for tomorrow. In half an hour, I will be back to do some schoolwork of a different kind with you."

His praise and the nut bar were accepted with a muted nod, but what stood out was the fact that she was to stay in the tent for this break. She looked at his retreating back, her eyes glassy once again. "Master, please can't you have some mercy here? I can't stay in here any longer. Endal disobeyed you more than once, and he didn't get grounded to his tent for 36 hours. Neither did he get spanked, twice, or have to do classwork all day." It did occur to Raven that such a thing might not be much of a punishment for Endal, yet it still seemed as if she were getting the short end of the stick here.

This was what parents of several children had to go through all the time, Eeth supposed. There was good reason for the rule that no master was allowed to have more than one padawan!

"Endal is not my padawan," he said firmly. "You are. Besides, in case you have not noticed, Endal is different from you. He would probably rejoice at the opportunity to lie in his tent and do school work all day long. It would not be a punishment at all for him – quite in contrast to you. And now stop it. I am not going to further justify the way I punish you. You are going to do as I tell you, whether you like it or not. This punishment is intended to teach you a lesson about patience and self-discipline. If you refuse to learn it, I can always extend the period of your grounding."

Extend IT! Raven almost choked. Surely he couldn't be serious? But as he left the tent, Raven decided that it wasn't worth risking it to find out.

Miserable, she curled into her sleeping bag and cried until her tears ran out and she was just lying there, sniffling for the sake of it. Eventually, it occurred to her that this was not how Eeth would accept this if it were him. Thus, she did her best to pull herself together. She sat up, her face a hot mess, and then she knelt and tried to release her frustration into the Force.

Eeth came in a few minutes later, carrying two small boxes that held a pretty crab striped blue-and-white and a small, black, furry mouse with large eyes. Both animals were calm; Eeth's skills with animals were limited, but at close proximity, he was able to dampen their fear and inspire trust if there were not too many of them and they were not too agitated.

He had sensed a bit of what was going on with his padawan and he was rather pleased with the way she comported herself.

"We will do a practical exercise in the description and classification of animal species," he said. "I know that Master Drkai already does a lot of this with you implicitly and in passing, but we will now apply your knowledge in a more systematic manner."

He knelt down and placed the box in front of her.

"That was well done, padawan," he added softly.

"What was?" Raven asked, looking around the tent for something she missed.

Eeth paused for a moment. He had thought the answer would have been obvious but apparently, it was not.

"Your attempt to release your negative emotions into the Force, rather than giving in to them," he said. "You could have thrown a tantrum and earned yourself lines, or worse. Instead, we will work with animals for the next two hours or so, after which you may accompany me outside and help me prepare dinner."

Raven looked a bit surprised at this praise, but, and despite feeling miserable over her circumstances, she smiled just a little. Then, she looked from Eeth to the two critters he held, both of which he had done a credible job of mollifying.

"Pick one of them and tell me what you make of it," said Eeth. This lesson was going to be based on things that Raven had already learned and practised in her biology lessons, but it would make for good exercise to practice them with unknown species as well. And there was another reason he was setting her this task. Judging from the species they had seen so far, both plants and animals, Eeth and Drkai had a growing suspicion that this planet had had contact with other worlds at some point in its past. It was probably a relatively distant past, as none of the species were entirely identical with known ones; but still, there was too close a resemblance between some of the species here and those prevalent on the neighbouring life-supporting planets to be considered a coincidence. This was not exactly surprising; space travel in the galaxy had a very long history. It was possible that in a distant past, some spaceships had landed here, maybe belonging to a people long extinct.

Intrigued, Raven pointed to the crab. It was quite easy for her to connect with both of these creatures, but the crab was the less appealing of the two. "Could we start with the crunchy one? I could hold the mouse in the meanwhile." She stretched out a hand, and immediately the mouse jumped from Eeth and coiled its way up Raven's sleep shirt. She started chuckling: it tickled! After a moment it popped its head out from her collar and perched itself on her shoulder. Raven wasn't sure what Eeth was going to teach her, but she was willing to put her misery aside for the lesson. Heck, anything was worth the distraction and this wasn't exactly bad.

Eeth led Raven through classifying the animals and connecting their characteristics to those of species existing on other planets. After a little more than an hour, he heard Endal and Drkai come back, but Raven was so engrossed in their work that she did not even notice. Eeth continued the lesson until the two hours he had scheduled were up. By that time, they were fairly certain to have established an evolutionary link between the animals they had examined and a few other species existing in the sector, which matched Eeth's and Endal's botanical findings.

"Good work, padawan," Eeth said. "You may leave the tent and help me prepare dinner. After dinner, we will have a workout."

"You really mean it!" It was rhetorical, and so Raven sprang to her feet and hugged him. "Thank you, master, I'll do what you say, I promise. I won't argue about anything, I swear it!" And the padawan planned to do just that. Right after she went to the toilet.

"You're welcome," Eeth replied, a small smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. He was pleased that Raven had finally managed to let go of her frustration and accept the time in the tent as an opportunity to learn. It had also been an opportunity for both of them to spend some time together.

After dinner, Eeth asked Drkai whether they could borrow the raft she had built with Endal for a workout session. Half an hour later, they were out on the water and he was teaching Raven how to keep her balance on a raft, lightsaber in hand.

"This reminds me of that time we hired that little fishing boat and went looking for the Royal family on Larivan, remember?" Raven asked, wobbling a little but enjoying the exercise, not to mention being out of that damned tent! Immensely.

"I do," said Eeth. "I also remember you falling out of it because you did not listen to my instructions. Pay attention to what you are doing." He turned the raft around, making her wobble a little more.

Raven smiled at the memory, widening and lowering her stance as Eeth rocked the raft. "I always pay attention, you know that," she shot back, giving him a grin.

"No, I do not," said Eeth but he smiled a little as he did so. The truth was that Raven was getting along quite well in her training, or at least the physical side of it. Force work and lessons were still hit and miss.

He continued the rafting exercise for half an hour more and then followed it up with a vigorous sparring session in ankle-deep water at the beach. By the time they were done, Raven was well and truly spent.

"Time for bed," Eeth finally decreed. "We will have to get up early tomorrow. We have to pack up and make our way back to the ship to store our samples and check our hyperspace communications. If everything is alright, we will continue on to the mountains."

Despite the fact that Raven would rather slit her wrists with a blunt spoon than go back in that tent, she didn't even consider complaining. With only tonight left to endure, nothing was worth risking an extension of this punishment. Nothing!


	9. Chapter 9

The following morning Raven was up at the crack of dawn. Why? Because as punishment for disobeying Drkai, Eeth had confined her to their tent for the best part of thirty-six hours, and she was desperate to be free. It had been the worst punishment Raven had endured, short of receiving the cane, and it had pushed her patience to the absolute limits. On the upside, she'd not only survived but managed to do it with some measure of dignity. Besides, Eeth had spent some time with her which had been appreciated, considering the jealousy Raven had felt lately.

Raven glanced over at Eeth; he looked like he was sleeping yet you never could tell with him, and she wasn't about to use their bond lest it wake him. Thus, she silently slipped from her sleeping bag and unzipped their tent. The orange glow of the rising sun was just visible on the horizon. The seemingly ordinary sight was breathtaking for the Temple-raised padawan. The air smelled fresh with a hint of salt, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach was music to her ears. Eeth had left her behind when he had gone the previous morning, and she had hated that. Well, not today. Raven was just pulling her shirt off when Eeth unexpectedly spoke up behind her.

"You may go to the beach, padawan," he said quietly, "but stay within sight of the tent and do not go swimming unless Master Luthan or myself are there to watch. The tide is going to pull out soon and the waves can be treacherous."

Raven jumped, spinning to face the entrance to their tent. "Uh! Yes, master," she replied, still entirely unwilling to argue with him over anything. Sighing, she pulled her sleep shirt back over her head; so much for going swimming...

Half an hour later, Raven lay back on the sand, totally exhausted from running up and down the dunes. Well, it had been more like running up them and then rolling to the bottom. It had been fun; the only thing was that she now had sand in just about every conceivable crevice! Not to mention her sleep shirt was smudged with something green that she had rolled through. Raven frowned and gave the stain a cursory sniff. Safe: it wasn't poo.

Predictably, Eeth made her wash her shirt and hang it out to dry before breakfast. When they were done, they packed the shuttle and made their way back to the starship. They spent the afternoon unloading and storing the boxes and crates of samples and specimens they had collected.

Two more trips to the ship came and went. During the second, they met the aquatic teams. From their observations of the oceans, they shared Eeth's and Drkai's suspicion that there had been contact with other planets, probably at least a hundred thousand years ago.

In between those trips, they explored a high mountain range, an enormous forest in a temperate region and a tundra zone with harsh winds. It was clear that Republican colonists would have their work cut out for them. Arkuna was a haven of unspoilt nature, but large parts of the landmass were home to dangerous predators and not well suited for agriculture. Those that were, were covered by huge, ancient and dense forests which would be hard to clear, and it would not be advisable, for climatic reasons, to clear away too large a part of them. However, these considerations were of no concern to their mission. Their task was simply to explore and report. So far, while they had discovered a number of interesting and unique life forms, none of them seemed close to developing intelligence.

"Tomorrow, we will leave for the South Pole region," Eeth told the group as they sat huddled around a minuscule fire. There were no woods to be found in the tundra, and their tents were providing minimal protection against the biting wind. "It is going to be extremely cold, down to minus forty degrees. We will try to make it a quick trip. When that is done, we will have roughly covered all climate zones. However, I think the forests - both the temperate and the tropical ones - deserve a little further exploration as they contain by far the highest density of species. If any sentient or near-sentient lifeform has escaped our notice, it will most likely be there. Do you agree, Drkai?"

"Makes sense," Drkai agreed, poking their fire with a stick to get some more air circulating. It was cold here, yet it would be nothing compared to the pole region.

Raven was wedged into Eeth's side like a little burr. She did not have a lot of body fat on her and felt the cold more than most, which was going to make their exploration of the pole region a generally unpleasant experience for her. Well, it was what it was. If Raven had learned anything from this mission so far, it was that she could endure more than she thought, a sentiment that Endal fully agreed with.

The next morning found them flying towards the pole. It became colder and windier as they went. At first, patches of snow interspersed with the scarce vegetation until there was nothing but a solid snow cover. Eeth took them only a little farther on from that point and chose a small sheltered dip in the ground, not too far from the beach, as their landing point.

"There is unlikely to be any life in the permafrost region unless it is either close to the sea or to the tundra," he explained to Raven as they got out of the speeder, the crusty snow just supporting their weight. "Animals need food, after all. Some predators have a wide range, but they would not usually go where they will not find prey either. If we find anything here, it is not likely to be any closer to the pole than we are now."

"What creature in its right mind would want to live out here anyway?" Raven gestured around at the frozen landscape and quickly shoved her mitten-covered hand back into a pocket while bouncing from foot to foot. Despite having on several layers, and a high tech snow parka, Raven's teeth were still chattering.

"You'd be surprised," was all Drkai said in response to Raven's comment. She slipped a warm, parka-padded arm around Endal and closed her eyes to scan the area. "I sense nothing that might pose a threat to us. Raven?" Drkai queried.

Raven sighed, closed her eyes and stretched out her senses. It was way too cold to focus on anything! Drkai was, without a doubt, far more skilled at detecting beings. However, she had told Raven that she possessed the potential for greater depth in the ability. It was just going to take time, patience and a lot of practice. "Nothing," Raven announced after a minute, and looked to Drkai for confirmation; the Jedi Master had concealed her discoveries once before to test Raven's focus; she wasn't falling for that one again.

Drkai nodded approvingly.

They looked around for a little longer after which, and much to Raven's relief, they returned to the sheltered dip where Eeth had landed their shuttle.

"Let us build an igloo," said Eeth. "It will give us a lot more protection than our tents, and if we build it large enough, we can even light a fire inside."

He handed out vibroblades that would enable them to cut blocks of ice quickly and easily. It was still going to be hard work, but it was both a useful skill to acquire and the most practical kind of shelter under the circumstances.

"An igloo? Wait a moment. Why can't we just stay in the shuttle, it's warm in there?" Raven complained, taking her vibroblade and eyeing it dubiously.

"Because," Eeth said sharply, "there is not enough room for the four of us, and we would waste too much energy if we ran the heater for two days. Besides, I want you to learn something about survival under extreme conditions. You never know when it will be useful. Now get a move on."

Endal decided to give it a try. He activated his vibroblade and was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was.

"I'm glad he isn't making us do it with a knife," he told his master. "Preferably a knife that we have to fashion out of stone first. That would be _SO_ like Master Eeth!"

"A knife? That's too easy," said Raven, swinging her vibroblade around in a flashy arc. "I'm surprised we aren't carving out blocks with teaspoons." She shot Endal a quick grin and got to work.

"Sounds like the two of you could do with a lesson in outdoor survival," Drkai said, a slight note of humour to her tone.

Endal rolled his eyes at Raven and stuck his tongue out at his master behind her back. He made sure Eeth wasn't looking when he did it!

Nevertheless, despite being hard work, it was actually also a lot of fun, and it served to keep them warm.

About an hour into carving blocks of ice for their igloo, Raven was getting a bit bored with the monotony. What would happen if she used her lightsaber for this? Surely a puddle, but perhaps the blade would cauterise the ice somehow? Doubtful. She sized it up, checked that nobody was watching and took a swipe. As expected, her lightsaber turned the ice into a pool of water and Raven was glad that nobody had been watching her experiment because, stupid much!?

Two hours later, they had constructed a large igloo that had enough room for a central fire pit surrounded by four sleepsteads. It even sported a chimney. The lower half was below snow level, formed by the space from which they had carved out the blocks that formed the upper half. As soon as they were done, Eeth wasted no time in ordering Raven and Endal to build a fire. They had brought a store of wood from the forest region, but that had already been seriously depleted in the tundra, so they would have to be careful not to use it up too fast. They also had brought fire bricks from the spaceship, but Eeth told the two not to use them for now. He wanted them to learn how to survive without having advanced equipment at hand.

"We could use some of the smaller sticks to get it going, and then add bigger bits," Raven suggested as she and Endal worked to make a shape that would allow enough airflow to catch.

The two padawans experimented with techniques for a while and quickly had a fire going.

Eeth came to examine it and pronounced himself satisfied. "It will be spaceship food for lunch, I am afraid," he said. "Obviously, we do not have fresh food at our disposal. After lunch, we can go to the ocean and see what it has to offer in the way of algae or fish. We will show you how to use snow gliders." He was also planning on a workout, each padawan with his or her master, later that afternoon.

Raven wrinkled her nose at the packets of starship food she could see Eeth pulling from their shuttle. "We had the exact same thing on our mission to Nar Shaddaa," she told Endal, making a gagging sound. That was all the complaining she was willing to risk whilst Eeth was in earshot, however. "What's a snow glider, anyway?"

"A kind of snowshoe, I think," Endal ventured.

Eeth nodded. "You can fashion them from twigs if need be," he said, "but there are none around, so fortunately for you, instead of twigs, I brought snow gliders from the Temple. They are long, broad, flat, very light and will carry your weight on the snow, preventing you from sinking in. And that saves a lot of energy. We can try it after lunch. Luckily, the sun is out and it is not snowing."

"Awesome!" Raven said. She was entertaining images of herself gliding down snow-covered hills at unbelievable speeds, her lightsaber taking out bad guys in her wake.

After lunch had settled, Raven strapped on her snow gliders and took off. It was almost impossible to run, but she realised you could skid forward pretty fast. Drkai chuckled as the girl whizzed by her for the third time; her enthusiasm was contagious.

"How do you stopppp?" Raven shouted, forcing herself into a skidded halt that filled the back of her parka with snow.

"As you have just found out, there are no breaks," Eeth said wryly. "Careful. The shoreline is just behind the next hill. You do not want to fall into the sea."

Endal was going much more slowly. For one thing, he had trouble getting accustomed to the moves; he kept trying to walk, instead of gliding. For another thing, he could sense that this was going to drain him of energy quite fast if he wasn't careful, and he still had a workout to complete later, even if it was one with his own master and not with Eeth. While Drkai tended to go much easier on him than Eeth, more often than not she was actually wearing him out these days.

As Eeth and Drkai had suspected, the ocean provided them with all kinds of life forms to examine: algae, sea birds, fish. On an island further away, they glimpsed a large colony of what looked like furry mammals that could swim. Save for the shuttle, they currently had no way of getting there. They decided that Drkai and Raven should examine it the next day. Endal collected numerous samples of seaweed and Eeth managed to catch two big fish; together with some rice or grains, this should constitute an edible dinner and spare them another round of starship food.

After their return to the igloo, Eeth made some tea and Drkai handed out slabs of chocolate to everyone in order to warm them up.

"With the addition of some chocolate, your icky tea seems almost palatable. Almost," Raven said with a grin, pleased at being allowed chocolate. Eeth did not dignify this with a comment.

"Why don't we do a snowball fight instead of a workout?" Endal said lazily, leaning back into his rolled-up sleeping bag. "Master Eeth, if you pair up with me, I might even stand a chance. My aim … doesn't suck at all, of course, but yours is better."

He gave Eeth a cheeky grin. Eeth did not rise to the provocation, however; he simply raised his eyebrows at him and took a sip of tea.

"Great idea!" Raven looked at Eeth, her smile all teeth. "Pleeeeease?" Besides, she was more than willing to risk being pummelled with snowballs if it meant she had a legitimate excuse to pelt them at Eeth without getting grouched at over it.

Noticing the approving look on Drkai's face, Eeth suspected that he might be outvoted. He also acknowledged that both Raven and Endal had worked hard for weeks. As long as they got some physical exercise, a day without formal lightsaber training would not hurt them.

"Alright," he agreed. "But do not expect me to go easy on you."

And he did not. Very soon, the other three were teaming up against him. Drkai was a trained Jedi but he was quite a bit older and more experienced and also physically stronger which meant that three people were needed to get a hit on him.

By the time the sun started sinking, they were all covered in snow, breathless and actually rather warm.

Taking Eeth out with snowballs was the most fun Raven had had in, well, in FOREVER. "Alright, so seven to three isn't exactly a stellar score, but you have to admit that Master Luthan totally nailed you with that last one." And she really had, too, the memory of Eeth's perfectly shiny black hair splattered with snow drawing a grin.

It was at that moment that Drkai's smile faded, and it had nothing to do with their snowball fight.

"Stop," she said quietly, putting a protective hand on Endal's shoulder.

"What is it?" Raven asked, but when Drkai didn't answer and simply closed her eyes, Raven did the same.

Force, whatever was coming after them was focused, driven and desperate.

"Eeth, this creature is semi-sentient, and it's tracking us rather quickly." Drkai said quietly, pulling her lightsaber and noticing that Raven already had hers in hand and was turning in the direction of the approaching presence. "Endal, go behind the igloo and stay there," Drkai ordered. She needed to focus on the direction and proximity.

Eeth tried to tune in to what she was sensing, and he could sense it too, much more clearly than he would have been able to with a non-sentient being, but certainly a lot less clearly than Drkai and Raven did.

"Raven, join Endal behind the igloo. Not inside. Now," he whispered. The approaching creature felt large and fierce, and if the igloo was damaged and collapsed, neither he nor Drkai wanted the padawans inside it.

Without waiting to see whether they obeyed, he turned back to Drkai.

"Can you convince him to back off without a fight?" he asked, drawing his saber. He knew, however, that large predators living in snow were often too single-minded and voracious to be open to persuasion.

Drkai had her eyes closed tightly and looked strained. After a minute of this she opened them and shook her head. "I can't. This planet has particularly frustrating animal life." Communicating without words, the two Jedi ignited their weapons and took off.

"We should try and face him on top of the hill," Eeth told Drkai. "He is probably taller than we are. We should not allow him to come at us from above."

When they reached the hilltop, it was not a moment too soon. They were confronted with the sight of a huge, snow-white, furry being, about three meters in height, that was lumbering up the hill. At the sight of them, it opened its mouth and roared, revealing very long, razor-sharp teeth.

"I will distract him, you come at him from behind," Eeth ordered in fast, clipped tones and launched into a fast and furious attack sequence designed to draw the being's attention to himself and allow Drkai to get around him.

Drkai was gone in a flash, hooking around to come up from behind. This wasn't going to be an easy fight because as emaciated as it was, this creature stood almost three meters tall, had razor-sharp claws and a ferocious looking maw. It was also hungry, very hungry. Drkai felt a moment of pity for it; he was just looking for food, after all. It was simply an unfortunate circumstance that his food consisted of them.

Raven poked her head up from behind the igloo but could not see anything other than a blanket of white and the faint glow of two lightsabers disappearing into the distance. Neither padawan had actually seen what their masters were up against. Nevertheless, Raven knew that disobeying would have dire consequences, and so she ducked lower just to be on the safe side. However, her weapon was at the ready and she thumbed the igniter switch in case Eeth called for her, only to be met with a rather unimpressive static sound and a strong ozone smell.

"Force. Eeth is going to kill me," Raven groaned, more to herself than Endal as she continued fiddling with her lightsaber only to have it fail repeatedly.

Endal's eyes widened.

"What did you do to it?" he whispered. "Did you drop it in water?"

He assumed their masters would be a match for the creature, but it still would have been comforting to have someone with a working weapon next to him, as opposed to having to rely on his training saber…

"No, not exactly. Fuck!" Raven swore agitatedly. "It must have fried something when I tried it out on the ice earlier. Yes, yes, I know, stupid. But believe me, I'm going to cop how stupid that was in spades from my master when I tell him this. What's worse is that he doesn't know I'm unarmed." Raven met Endal with a slightly pained expression; sure, their masters would probably be fine, but Eeth and Drkai had one unarmed padawan and a practice saber as backup.

And said masters were having their work cut out for them. Eeth was glad that there were two of them; he was not at all sure he would have managed on his own. The creature was not only huge, fast, hungry and intent on killing, it was also much more cunning than an ordinary animal would have been. It instantly recognised their lightsaber as weapons and avoided them as well it could. Still, there were two lightsabers against one opponent, and he did not know where to look first when Drkai came at him from behind. Eeth used that moment to leap up and hack at its throat; when the animal turned and staggered towards him, Drkai came at him from behind and it staggered again. It took nearly a dozen attacks, however, until he gave up the fight, and two more killing blows which at this stage were more an act of mercy than anything else.

"So... there is a semi-sentient being on the planet after all," Eeth said quietly, disigniting his saber. "What do you make of it?"

"He's quite thin," Drkai noted. When one pushed the creature's fur back, the outline of ribs could clearly be seen. "And he was alone. Perhaps a rogue male outcast from some clan? If that's the case, they'll be easy enough to sense now that I know this one." Drkai stood, clipping her weapon to her belt.

Eeth frowned. "Are these beings likely to develop into sentient life forms?" he asked. "Would their existence preclude colonisation? Or do we need further research to answer those questions?"

Drkai had been wondering similar herself. "It's hard to say. Definitely possible, yes. Of course it would take many scientists many years to track the evolutionary process to this creature in order to predict possible future evolution, and that is assuming it evolved here in the first place. As for their impact on colonisation…" Drkai looked down at the creature and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "The more information we can gather on this species, the easier that question will be to answer. Time permitting, I suggest we do an autopsy."

"We definitely should," agreed Eeth. "We will make as much time for this as we need to in order to come to a substantiated conclusion. I think we should make it our next task to find others of this species, too. Judging from the colour of its fur, they are likely to live in the polar region or at its borders permanently. If we have a hard time finding them from the shuttle, we could bring the starship here and conduct a thermal scan of the region. But let us take care of the autopsy first."

Plan in place, the two Jedi levitated the creature to the igloo. That spot offered more protection from the winds than the hilltop, and Drkai would need her equipment to perform the autopsy. Besides, it was time to release their padawans from their hiding place. The two Jedi decided that Raven should help Drkai with the autopsy; it would be a good opportunity for her to learn.

"You may come out now!" Eeth called as they had lowered the dead creature into the snow. Drkai and Raven would need to start their work fast because at these temperatures, it was going to be frozen solid within an hour or so.

Raven popped her head up from behind the igloo just in time to see an enormous mammoth of a furry humanoid settled on the snow before Eeth and Drkai. She looked at Endal, who looked back at her with a similarly bewildered expression, and stepped out to get a better look. It was dead, that much was clear.

"Is this what attacked you?" Endal asked, looking from the creature to his master. "Ummm… are there more of them around?"

"It is, and, we're not sure," Drkai answered Endal honestly, taking a moment to check on him across their bond. "We will find out more through an autopsy. Raven, I want you to help me."

Raven's muted nod was not rude or anything yet Drkai sensed that she wanted to say something more, perhaps to Eeth. So, she asked Endal to help her collect the equipment they'd need.

Once Drkai and Endal were busy, Raven looked to Eeth. "Could I talk to you for a moment, in private?"

"You may," said Eeth and took her to a spot that was just out of earshot from Drkai and Endal.

"I kinda have two things that I need to talk to you about. The first bit is that I really don't want to assist master Luthan. It's going to be gross. Can you excuse me from it, pleeeease?" Raven was hoping that Eeth would be on her side here.

Eeth was not, however. The autopsy was necessary and Jedi did not shirk away from doing what was necessary!

"You," he said sternly, "are going to assist Master Luthan no matter what your feelings about it are because it is what needs to be done. We need to find out as much about these beings as we can, especially about whether they can be considered sentient, and if Master Luthan says an autopsy will help, then there is nothing to debate. Besides, as someone who has a gift for working with animals, it is a skill you need to learn. You, padawan, will do this. And that is an order. What was the second thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

Raven's shoulders slumped at receiving that order; she hated it when he did that because it left her no room to argue. At least not without seriously pissing him off, and a seriously pissed-off Eeth was not something she needed moments before telling him that she had fried her weapon. Thus, she gave a contrite nod and very slight bow, hoping to get back in his good books. It probably wouldn't work, but nor could it hurt! Heck, showing Eeth respect never hurt. Swallowing, she took a breath and blew it out in a long sigh, and then she unclipped her lightsaber, holding it out for him to take. "I might have broken it."

Eeth's eyebrows rose so high they nearly came up to his horns.

"Broken it how, and when?" he inquired as he accepted the saber and examined it.

He did have to ask that. Raven wrinkled her nose and shifted uncomfortably. "You see, I was curious to find out what would happen if I tried to cut an ice brick with it." Raven cringed at how fucking stupid that impulse had been. What had she thought was going to happen?! "If I tell you that it was stupid and that I know it was stupid, would you please consider not making me feel any stupider? I didn't actually think it would fry it, maybe just make a puddle or, I dunno…" She gave him an embarrassed look.

Eeth glared at her. "You will leave it up to me to decide how stupid I need to make you feel," he said sternly. "When, exactly, did you realise it had short-circuited?" he asked, realising that they had probably, without knowing it, left two nearly defenceless padawans to hide behind the igloo.

"When you sent me to follow Endal. We were behind the igloo and I thought that if you called for me I ought to be ready," Raven cringed even more if such a thing were humanly possible. "So I tried to ignite it and…" She reached out and thumbed the ignitor on her saber, producing a hissing sound and an ozone smell. "That happened."

"So you tried cutting ice with your saber, without asking anyone whether this was a good idea, and when it failed, you did not bother to check for damage," said Eeth icily. "Padawan, Endal only has a training saber. That left both of you next to defenceless, without Drkai's and my knowledge. I am not at all happy about this and I do not want it to happen again. You will spend the evening repairing your saber, whether it takes you two hours or twelve. And in place of your next workout, you will write one hundred times 'My saber is a weapon, not a toy, and I will not use it foolishly again'. Now go and help Master Luthan. You have no time to lose."

"Yes, master. I'm sorry, it was really stupid," Raven agreed, not bothering to even try defending herself over that one.

"Apology accepted," said Eeth, handing her saber back. "Now go." He motioned for her to join Drkai and followed, willing to offer help if it was necessary. Endal was thinking along the same lines but, in contrast to Raven, he was actually quite enthusiastic about it. This was like a research project, and he liked research projects. He liked this one even more because it was an unknown species, so who knew what they might discover?

"Does it smell like that because it's dead?" Raven asked Drkai, pulling the parka collar up over her nose.

"You get used to it, but if you're having problems, smudge some of this under your nose." Drkai tossed her a tube of Noxo and then pulled a shaver from her bag, handing it to Endal.

"What's this?" Raven asked, twisting off the cap.

"It will stop your body from reacting to the smell, although I must say this one does not smell as bad as some of the animals I have encountered, nor is it decayed. Count yourself lucky. Glove up, let's get this over with."

By the time they were done, Raven was covered in blood, fur and, much to her horror, urine; she would never forget what a bladder looks like. Ever! It took her some time to clean up, not that she had dared complain about any of it. In fact, Raven had been on her best behaviour since Eeth had grounded her to their tent, despite the fact that she had still managed to wind up on his shit list. Raven thought she was becoming a VIP member of said list.

That evening after dinner Eeth asked Raven to fix her lightsaber.

It had been a while since Raven had pulled her weapon apart like this, and so it was taking her considerable time to fix the circuitry. In fact, it was almost her bedtime before Raven had her weapon ready to reassemble, and that was going to take considerable focus. The girl groaned, scrubbing at her eyes.

"You are finishing this tonight," said Eeth sternly. "You need a working weapon."

He took a look at the work Raven had done and asked a tad more gently, "Do you know how to proceed?"

"I do, but the focus bit is the hardest part," Raven complained and lay back on her sleeping bag to rest her eyes for a moment. "Would you help me?" It was a long shot because this was probably meant to be punitive as much as it was a necessity. Then again, Eeth rarely said no to a request for help. It was worth asking in any case.

Eeth hesitated for a moment and thought. Then he said, "You will do this by yourself but I will help you focus. Link with me." After all, he needed her to be well-rested tomorrow. They had a lot of ground to cover!

Raven sat up, huffed, but did as he said.

An hour later Raven had her lightsaber back in one piece. Endal was sleeping, so she stood and stretched out without making a sound. "I'll go test it outside?" she whispered to Eeth. Besides, as cold as it was, she could use the fresh air.

"Five minutes," said Eeth quietly. "I will come with you. After that, get ready for bed."

After having spent the last six hours sitting, focusing and fixing, Raven took those five minutes without hesitation. They ended up sparring because it was cold, she had been sitting on her ass all night and well, Raven had her lightsaber back and working. When they returned to the tent, even Eeth would admit to being exhausted. It had been a long day, and the cold was getting to them.

* * *

The following morning Raven woke to find herself wedged into Eeth's side. It wasn't freezing in their igloo, but it was still a lot colder than she liked. Yawning, Raven pried herself off Eeth, sat up and stretched. Drkai and Endal were already awake and meditating so when Eeth sat up beside her, she smiled in lieu of a verbal greeting so as not to disturb them.

Eeth returned the smile and brushed his hair back.

"Good morning, padawan," he mouthed quietly.

As the igloo was not tall enough for him to stand (Raven and Endal were at an advantage here), he scooted towards the entrance to look outside and check the weather conditions. It was cloudy and light snow was drifting past the entrance. It had already covered the site of the autopsy. The snowfall was not heavy enough to impede further exploration, though. Eeth wanted them to check the neighbouring island for the furry mammals they had found. Tomorrow, they were planning on returning to the spaceship and taking it to this area for a thermal scan, which would be the easiest way to find further predators. Such a scan would not be much use in environments with dense animal life, but in a hostile environment like this planet's arctic zone, it would enable them to narrow down their search considerably.

Eeth was just about to pull his head back in when the clouds parted and he noticed a brief flash of light in the opening, like sunlight on metal. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on the area in question. There it was again, moving south and descending. Before he could make any further observations, the clouds bunched again and it was gone.

Turning towards the others, he said, not bothering to lower his voice now, "I think a starship is descending onto the planet. We need to get going and find out who they are. Besides, if these people are hostile, we are far too exposed to remain here. Let us pack up and see if we can find them. And let us hope they do not find our starship before we find them! Raven, could you pack up my things? I need to go to the shuttle, send a hyperspace message to the Temple and see if a scan will give me further information."

Meanwhile, Drkai looked to Endal. "Get dressed quickly and go with Master Koth, I will take care of our things," she ordered. Endal had spent most of his time mapping and the like with Eeth; he would be of most use helping to navigate. Meanwhile, Drkai needed to check the area and cover their tracks. Also, it would be wise to make sure that no more unexpected 'guests' showed up to impede their duties.

Eeth accepted Endal's company without comment. Once they were at the shuttle, he sat down at the comm unit. "Padawan Endal, set the scanners to maximum range and scan for vessels of any kind," he instructed while fiddling with the controls. It was not going to be easy to establish a secure, undetectable hyperspace connection to Coruscant. There was a lot of interference from the planet's magnetic pole, and that would doubtlessly affect the sensors as well. The best they could hope for were glimpses of the vessel and its rough direction.

When Drkai and Raven jumped into the shuttle, Eeth pointed his padawan to the back seats. "Take a pair of binoculars and scan the sky towards the South-West," he told her. "You might be lucky and get another glimpse."

Drkai was busy looking over the reports from Endal's scan. "This is not enough to give us an exact location but it's as good as we're going to get considering the magnetic field and weather. Good job," Drkai encouraged.

"You've got the general direction and an approximate distance at least," Eeth told Endal. "I will pilot us there, keeping us as low and as well-hidden as possible. Keep trying to use the sensors. If we are lucky, they have not landed yet."

"Alright," Endal said, continuing to run through various frequencies while Eeth started up the engines.

Between the four of them they managed to estimate where the ship grounded. On Eeth's advice, they landed in a thicket of trees about ten kilometres away from their target – far enough out of range even for hunters. They had not managed to get a clear reading on the ship, but from what little they had discovered, it was clearly a medium-sized spacecraft and had landed right in the centre of a huge temperate forest in what was obviously a controlled landing. This was impossible unless an area of the forest had been cleared for that purpose, so the ship could not have landed here by accident. Unfortunately, Eeth had been unable to contact the underwater teams. They were currently active in the oceans halfway around the planet; terrestrial communication would not reach them, and he could not expect them to receive a hyperspace message from the Temple before tomorrow. They could not afford to wait that long. They need to act _now_.


	10. Chapter 10

"Padawans, you stay here and look after the shuttle while Master Drkai and I explore the ship that has just landed," said Eeth.

As Raven opened her mouth to protest, he raised his hand and cut her off. "Padawan, we do not know who or what we are dealing with," he said firmly. "We are not going to take two junior padawans into a potentially dangerous situation if we can help it. Besides, someone has to camouflage and guard our shuttle. That will be your job. Master Drkai and I will go and see what we can find. You, padawans are going to stay here and stay in line of sight of each other and the shuttle. Try to hide the shuttle as best you can. Should unknown persons approach, you are allowed to run and hide; else, you stay here and wait for our return. Light no fire and make no noise. Do not comm us unless it is an emergency. We will be near enough for you to sense through the Force whether we are alright and we will return as fast as we can, but this might take a day or two. We have enough food in the shuttle for you to get by. In the unlikely event that something happens to us, use the emergency frequency on your comm unit and wait for the underwater teams to show up. In the even more unlikely event that the shuttle is found and taken, try to hide in the vicinity and contact us. Do you have any questions?"

Endal sighed and shook his head in resignation. He did not like this, but he knew that there was no way a junior padawan with a training saber would get to accompany the two Jedi masters on this part of their mission, so he did not protest.

Unlike Endal, Raven felt that she was more than up to the task. However, one look at Eeth's expression dashed any hopes of making her opinion known. Besides, leaving Endal here by himself was out of the question; she would hate it if they left her behind by herself so there was no way she was doing that to him. They would make the most of it, and who knew, it might even be fun.

Drkai leant down and put an arm around Endal's shoulders.

"We will be back soon. Behave yourself and," in a voice so low that only Endal could hear, "do your best to keep your counterpart from doing anything crazy. Be mindful of all that Master Koth has told you, listen to the Force and, most importantly, be safe." Drkai dropped a kiss on his forehead and released him so as not to embarrass him. Endal meant the world to Drkai, and she had every faith that he would meet whatever challenges they faced with a level head.

Eeth glanced at Raven who was obviously trying valiantly to be brave about this. Suddenly, the memory of a similar situation he had experienced as an eleven-year-old padawan came back to him, along with the memory of how he had felt. On an impulse, he did something he had sometimes, but very rarely, done with Lakhri: he knelt down in front of Raven and hugged her.

"I know you do not like this, padawan," he said in a quiet voice. "When I was a padawan, I did not like such situations either. But staying here with the shuttle and hiding it as best you can is the most important contribution you can make to our mission now. Accept it and do it as best you can. May the Force be with you, padawan."

Raven let her head rest on Eeth's shoulder and closed her eyes, gratefully taking in the offered comfort and reassurances he offered. "And with you," she replied softly, not really wanting to let go of the hug but equally trying to look brave about all of this.

It wasn't long after that Eeth and Drkai were gone, leaving the two padawans to their duties.

They spent all morning covering the shuttle in brambles and leaves, leaving an opening for the driver-side door. After a quick and unsatisfactory meal, they spent more time concealing all possible access points to the hollow in the ground where their shuttle was parked. By mid-afternoon they had run out of things to do.

"I don't see why we can't leave this place," Endal said glumly, sitting cross-legged on the ground and examining a reddish mushroom. "I mean, we would sense anyone approaching from miles away."

"Yep, I know," Raven agreed, moving a branch and giving their camouflage job a once over. Personally, she thought that that particular order was overkill on their mission leaders' part.

"I don't think our masters are gonna be back tonight," Endal mused. "I can sense mine. She's fine, but she definitely isn't on her way back. How about Eeth?"

Raven paused, dropping the last twig into place and closed her eyes briefly. "He's not returning. His response is calm, but then, it usually is." The girl sat down on a tree stump and pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms about them. She wasn't happy about this either, but what could they do? "Got any suggestions?"

Endal shrugged. He was bored already!

"Let's look for something to eat besides our starship stuff," he said without enthusiasm. "I've got all the equipment here to analyse what we find, so we should be fine. And we needn't go far. Just a little up and down the water."

There was a small creek below the hiding place of their shuttle, well within sight. They stocked up on water and walked up and down the stream, collecting watercress leaves, a jar of berries that proved edible and quite tasty, and a bunch of thick white roots that turned out to be poisonous and had to be discarded.

"Well, we can have salad with cold starship food, and berries for dessert," Endal said, looking at their provisions and pulling a face. "That's something. I guess we are not supposed to be seen, so we will have to turn in when it gets dark. Just great."

"Or we could climb a tree and watch the stars?" Raven suggested, trying to be helpful.

"Alright," Endal agreed, for lack of a better idea.

Raven pulled a few berries from her trouser pockets. Their food wasn't the best, but heck, she had been forced to eat worse.

The two turned in early as there wasn't anything else to do. Not wanting to put up the tent, they went to sleep in the shuttle, which was cramped and uncomfortable; but they had no idea whether there were predators in these woods, so sleeping out in the open was not an option.

The next morning, they found their situation unchanged. They could sense Eeth's and Drkai's Force presences. Their masters felt normal, but did not seem to be returning yet. Endal and Raven had an

unappetising breakfast of cold cereal and berries and then tried listlessly to keep themselves busy by examining a few plants and small animals and by doing some schoolwork. By midday there was no sign of change yet and the boredom was overwhelming.

"You know," said Raven out of the blue. "If I hadn't endured the best part of thirty-six hours confined to a tent, I might just say this was the most boring part of our mission so far." She let her datapad slip from her lap, wincing only a bit as it hit the dirt, corner first.

Raven was about to suggest that they do a workout but realised just in time that such a thing would be akin to Endal suggesting that they work on astrophysics.

"Well, for me it is," said Endal. "I'd rather have a workout with your master at this point. Compared to what we're doing now, it positively seems like fun. If it's possible to put your master and 'fun' into the same sentence, that is."

They both grinned at that. Then Endal's grin suddenly disappeared and he tensed up.

"Shhh," he hissed, nudging Raven slightly. "Look. There."

He had caught movement in the bushes that covered the slope leading to the creek, and it had not looked like an animal. Nor was it a humanoid; it was too small for that, more the size of… a very small humanoid? A monkey?

Raven closed her eyes and tried to get a read on whatever it was through the Force. "It's most definitely sentient." She crouched lower as a second creature appeared and disappeared behind a tree. Yep, definitely sentient, not only because of the way their minds were organised but also because they had tools strapped to their bodies.

Raven looked at Endal as the two toddler-sized, furry beings waddled away from them, chattering in some dialect that neither padawan recognised.

"It's part of our mandate to find exactly this yet if we leave the shuttle, we'll be disobeying. Thoughts?" Raven asked Endal. She was tired of being punished for reckless behaviour; this time she was running a sanity check.

"Yes, we are supposed to find exactly this," Endal agreed, thinking. He knew they had been given orders but those orders had not exactly included stumbling upon sentient life! "If we stay with the shuttle and let them go, maybe we won't be able to find them again. They might be Force-resistant or able to manipulate the Force, like the drox you encountered, in which case you and my master might not be able to sense them. We might at least follow them for a short while to get a sense of direction. Our masters are miles away, and besides, they hadn't foreseen this situation. We don't really have instructions for this case. And if we don't hurry, the beings will be gone!"

The creatures had already disappeared from sight; they had crossed the creek and vanished into the trees on the opposite shore.

"True," agreed Raven, also thinking. It would be a pain in the ass trying to run scans around this area anyway, given the trouble they had had earlier. Decision made, Raven stood, summoned her cloak and rolled up the sleeves. "You're right. Let's go." They didn't have a lot of time to waste.

Endal and Raven hurried after the creatures, trying hard to be silent and inconspicuous. They had had some training in moving quietly through the woods, and they had also learned, to a certain extent, how to use the Force to cloak their presence. However, their skills were nowhere near perfect, the furry beings moved fast, and the area was unfamiliar, with the result that Raven and Endal did not manage to remain unnoticed for long. The beings, suddenly aware that they were being followed by two very large creatures, exchanged a series of grunts and growls. Then, one of them ran to the right, disappearing in a thicket of bushes, and the other to the left, crossing another shallow creek.

"What now?" asked Endal, stopping short. "We were told to stay together. I don't fancy splitting up. What do you think?"

Raven huffed at having been detected by these little monkey creatures of all things. She looked to Endal and chewed at her lip. "Let's stick together. We can follow the one crossing the creek, he seemed slower," she whispered, and when Endal agreed, the pair followed at a safe distance. Maybe, if they kept far enough back, it would think they had given up? It was worth a try.

Eventually, the creature stopped running and began to walk, then stopped walking and sat for a good ten minutes, pulling some kind of woven canteen filled with water from his hip and taking a long drink. Just when they were starting to seriously wonder if this wild goose chase was ever going to lead them to a village, not to mention how they were going to locate their shuttle again, he got up and began waddling off to the right. Well, they were in this for the long haul now.

Half an hour went by and still they saw nothing but more forest. And then, something neither padawan anticipated happened.

"Jump!" Raven warned Endal, springing high into a branch above. The Force had warned her a second before the trap went off but when she turned, Endal was not beside her! That was because he was busy trying to free himself from a net that had been thrown at him from somewhere above. He had followed Raven's command and jumped aside, managing to avoid the trap, but apparently, the beings that had set it had been prepared for this move. He struggled to get hold of his lightsaber and ignite it. Even a practice saber would be able to cut through the net and might also scare the beings, whatever they were. However, before he could reach it, he had been pulled to the ground by a host of furry beings who were pointing various items at him, all of which were made of a glittering black stone and, more importantly, looked pointy and sharp. He immediately ceased his struggles and let them truss him up like fowl.

Meanwhile, at least seven or eight beings were pointing spears or bows and arrows at Raven up in her tree. One of them, who was clearly their leader, growled at her. The sounds themselves were entirely unintelligible to the padawans, but it was obvious that they wanted her to come down.

"I think they mean business," Endal called up at Raven miserably. He felt even more miserable when one of the beings put a knife to his throat in a warning to be silent, and he could not quite suppress the surge of anxiety that welled up inside him at the realisation of their situation. His emotions were so strong that his master would definitely have caught on to them. Of course, some masterly help might be more than welcome right now, especially since, come to think of it, Endal was fairly sure they would have a hard time finding the shuttle again even if released. On the other hand, Eeth and Drkai were going to be less than pleased with Endal and Raven for not only having disobeyed their orders but also having interrupted their masters' mission. Right now, though, with ropes cutting into his arms and legs, Endal did not care that much.

Raven was about to hit the ground and start slashing out at ropes and disarming – Uh! What the Force were they, anyway? – but then she thought better of it. Endal might not last that long if she were too rash. Thus, she reached out with a Force compulsion that would have impressed Drkai, had she been around, but got only a slight reaction. These things were most definitely more than either padawan had bargained for.

"Okay," Raven shouted, doing her best to pacify the one she had attempted to control. One hand came up to indicate surrender, and the other went to the duress on her commlink. Every Jedi in terrestrial range would receive their immediate location and tracking signal. It was the best she could do as Endal was right, these little fuckers meant business.

* * *

Drkai had felt Endal's distress through their bond and was reaching for her comlink when the silent tracking signal started flashing.

"Raven's tracking signal. I sensed some distress from Endal also. I think our padawans may be in trouble."

"Yes," Eeth replied quietly, frowning. "What is more, they are in trouble in a place that is not remotely near our shuttle."

They had spent yesterday afternoon, half the night and all morning listening in on the conversations of the smugglers they had found; smugglers who were entertaining plans of setting up a base here. They had brought a couple of droids who were busy measuring the whole area and making plans for building some kind of structure. It was clear they were not intending to stay for long, at least for now. So far, Drkai and Eeth had not been able to find out exactly where the smugglers were originally from, although what they had managed to overhear allowed them to narrow down the list of options. Nor was it clear when the smugglers were planning on leaving, which created a problem. Eeth had managed to establish a secure hyperspace connection with the Temple and asked them to send a law enforcement patrol, but that would not be here before the day after tomorrow. It was imperative that they find out whether the smugglers were going to leave before that, because in that case they would have to try to disable their starship to prevent that from happening. They could not just leave now and risk losing the smugglers before law enforcement arrived.

Reaching a decision, Eeth told Drkai, "You stay here and find out as much as you can. If you can establish that the smugglers are going to stay for at least a couple more days, come and join us. If not, I will rejoin you as soon as I have saved our padawans from whatever situation they have gotten themselves into. Alright?"

"Alright," agreed Drkai. It was the best option and she trusted Eeth implicitly; he would do his utmost to see their padawans safe, she knew. "Thanks for taking care of this." And with that, Eeth turned and disappeared into the trees. Drkai had every faith in Eeth, but she was still concerned for their apprentices; whatever they had gotten themselves into, they had better have a damned good reason for leaving the shuttle and scaring them like this, she thought.

* * *

No sooner had Raven's feet hit the ground than she, too, was tied in a similar fashion and the pair were slowly transported through the forest. The furry beings had fashioned a kind of sledge that was pulled along on ropes. Its transport was helped by placing it on tree trunks, which were used in place of wheels; whenever the hindmost trunk came free, it was lifted up and carried to the front of the sledge, upon which the two captives were placed. This made for very slow and cumbersome transport. Endal fell off on one occasion, yelping as his thigh caught onto the sharp end of a broken root and started bleeding. Ignoring his predicament, the beings pushed him back onto the sledge none too gently.

Unimpressed with their situation, Raven attempted to add a positive spin. "Well, this is one way of finding their village."

Endal just snorted. He would have loved examining his thigh, but there was no way, and he was starting to feel seriously cramped.

They moved deeper and deeper into the forest, which Endal knew from his scans was vast, hundreds of kilometres in each direction. He just hoped that their masters – who had to make their way back to the shuttle on foot, after all – would be able to reach them before these beings did anything rash. Then again, if they had planned on doing anything rash, Raven and he would already be dead, so there was hope.

After at least an hour, he noticed that the going was faster which was due to the fact that they were now moving upon some kind of road. It was an old, derelict road, patched up in some places and crumbled in a lot of others, but it still was a road, and it did not look like something the furry beings would have built. He noticed chunks of rock, or possibly even duracrete, half-sunken and mostly covered by moss, trees and twines. Apparently, they were moving toward something else they had not expected to find on this planet: the ruins of a very old city.

Raven did her best to memorise any notable landmarks as they went so they could find their way out of here. Massive trees grew up through roofless stone buildings, vines and creepers hung down walls and through mismatched window holes, all of which appeared to have been built for beings much taller than their captors. Eventually, they were dropped unceremoniously to the ground in front of a massive statue with a pendulum dangling from an outstretched arm. Raven could not understand their urgent chipmunk-like chatters but rose to her knees quickly when a spear was pressed into her back. Was this some kind of test? she wondered, trying to figure out what actions would keep them alive and which would get them skewered.

Suddenly the padawans were surrounded by what looked like half the tribe, humming a deep, two-toned chant. Raven shot a look at Endal and then eyed the pendulum. Should they use the Force to make it move?

Raven was busy racking her brain for a way out when Endal was forcefully shoved forward, his face pushed into the ground mere inches from the sharp pendulum end. Raven decided to use the Force to stop the pendulum from hurting Endal, who was probably thinking the same himself; together they could achieve more through the Force.

However, the beings argued among themselves heatedly for several very long moments. Then Endal was pulled away from under the pendulum and turned around. A being with fur of a slightly lighter brown jabbered off at him, then paused and gave him time to answer.

"Err… I am Endal, a Jedi padawan," he said weakly. "I'm afraid I don't understand you."

The furry beings seemed to come to the same conclusion. They made him sit up against a pillar and Raven next to him. Then they started examining them and divesting them of their equipment. Endal was forced to watch and sit still as they took away his torch, his knife and finally his lightsaber. They were delighted with the knife and awed at the torch, which they managed to light right away. When one of the beings tried to press the button on his training saber, it flared up the wrong way around, and the being received a burn on its fur. Shrieking, it threw the saber away. It rolled over several times, still ignited, while the furry beings backed off and stood around it in a wide circle, staring.

Raven tried not to move as she endured the same examination Endal had. They pulled out a long strand of her hair, holding it up to the light, then took her braid and compared it with Endal's. There was a lot of 'umm'ing and 'arr'ing going on around them. When they reached for Raven's lightsaber, she visibly paled; this was not a training weapon. Much to her surprise, the small being deliberately pointed it away from himself. He looked to be working up the courage to ignite it, but instead, he made some disgruntled sounds and put it aside. Raven hoped to discreetly knock it from their view, but no opportunity presented itself. Sure, she could summon it to herself, but it would be tricky cutting through the ropes without burning herself. Besides, it would be two Jedi padawans against the Force only knew how many of these little things there were creeping around. No, as long as they weren't in acute danger, they'd just have to endure for the time being.

Finally, the beings seemed to come to a decision. A dozen of them, armed with spears and knives including the padawans' own knives, pulled them up and dragged them towards a hole below a huge slab of stone. They pushed Endal inside first; he suspected that they were more scared of him than of Raven because he was the taller one of the two. When he had finished rolling down a long slope, bumping his head painfully in the process, Endal discovered that it opened into a large rectangular room with duracrete walls, obviously a remnant of the old city. There seemed to be no more than the one exit, which was heavily guarded. There were guards with them, too, and the padawans' hands and feet were bound. Their lightsabers, along with all the rest of their equipment, were not with them. Endal could only hope that their masters could devise a plan to free them because he sure as hell failed to see one!

Raven, too, was nursing her own collection of scrapes and bruises. She couldn't figure out what they wanted with them. Slavery perhaps? It was certainly a possibility. Equally possible was that they didn't know what to do with them yet either! She had so many questions, and the frustration of not being able to discern an answer from the creepy little fuckers was starting to show through. She tried scrambling to her knees only to have a knife pointed at her, its owner chattering angrily her way. When Raven acquiesced, the little thing stuck a foot in the middle of her back. It wouldn't effectively hold her there should she decide to get up again, but then, the knives and spears they were bandying about would undoubtedly do them some damage. There was nothing either of them could do but wait, so Raven tried to relax, closed her eyes and entered a light meditative trance, she was still alert enough to monitor the room but calm enough to try sending details of their whereabouts to Eeth through their bond.

Raven's attempt at communicating through their bond was helpful to Eeth who was slowly and silently approaching the old city, using the Force to conceal his presence. He had no idea whether that would work on the city's inhabitants, though, so he took great care not to be noticed. And that was no easy task. There were small furry creatures everywhere, including up in the trees. They plainly knew every inch of these woods. Eeth could see two of them experimenting with torches, probably Raven's and Endal's. The padawans themselves were nowhere to be seen, but what he sensed from Raven led him to believe that she must be underground, right in the middle of the large dwelling. At the edge of the open area he was currently watching from between a couple of collapsed pillars, he saw a heavily guarded irregular hole in the ground below a stone slab. That was probably where they were held. The problem was, he would have to cut through hundreds of these beings in order to get the padawans out, and by the time he managed it, a lot of lives would have been lost. In the worst case, the padawans would be killed as well because there was no telling how the furry beings would react to an attack. He just hoped the beings had not discovered their shuttle and were busy disassembling it. That would be a major nuisance! It could not be excluded, though. The beings would be stupid not to suspect there might have been others with Endal and Raven, even if they were unable to identify the two as children.

Another problem presented itself when the beings cleared the way for what was probably a very old female whose fur was nearly black but showed a patch of white on the chest. She picked up something from the ground that looked very much like Raven's lightsaber. Some of the other beings jabbered at her, whereupon she turned it the right way around and ignited it. Everybody else jumped back in fright as the blade hummed to life, but the female being held tight and experimented with it. The blade was too long and too hard to control for her, though, and she switched it off after a while, nearly severing another being's head as she did so. She then tried Endal's saber, and that apparently went to her satisfaction. When she was done, she took both sabers and disappeared towards the far end of the city; Eeth could not make out where she ended up.

For now, from what he sensed from her, his padawan seemed to be uncomfortable, but unhurt. "Padawan?" Eeth sent through their bond. "I am here, but you will have to wait until nightfall before I try to get you out. If you are in acute danger, alert me immediately. I will remain close by."

He was going to try and find out as much about this place as he could in the meantime, which was still a long time away. Maybe he could also find the padawans' sabers before his rescue attempt. While Endal's training saber could easily be replaced, this would only be possible once they were back at the Temple, and Raven would have to build an entirely new one if hers got lost.

It was all Raven could do not to sigh in relief at receiving that message from Eeth. Unfortunately, their captors had placed them top and tail, so there was no way to communicate this news to Endal. She could only hope that Drkai had done the same with him.

The hours passed by slowly and had Raven not been shivering so much, she would have been bored out of her mind. Their captors had stripped her off her cloak on the uncomfortable journey here as it kept getting tangled up in the sledge and pulling her off the side. As it was, Raven attempted using the technique Eeth had taught her to keep warm but she was not yet proficient enough; it would drain more energy than it was worth. Eventually, her chattering and trembling started annoying the guards, and one of them tossed a smelly fur over her. And it really was smelly! Not that she cared; Raven was freezing her ass off and would have crawled under the snow monster if it were close enough.

Endal was not as skinny as Raven and not as prone to freezing, but he still felt far from comfortable. He could vaguely sense Master Eeth close by, but no more than that. His own master seemed to approach, too, but he was not sure, and his skills at communicating through their bond were not as good as Raven's yet. His head hurt from having been bumped against the stony floor repeatedly, and he could not think straight. Besides, he needed to pee, a need that became more and more urgent. He tried to convey it to his guards, but only received a kick in reward, which finally forced him to pee into his pants. He simply had no other options.

Had Endal not voiced his need, Raven would have recognised the tell-tale wriggling from the weeks Eeth had made her spend in crèche after their mission to Nar Shaddaa. When the inevitable finally happened, she truly felt sorry for Endal. Raven tried sending him some calming energy while doing her best to avoid the puddle that was slowly creeping towards her, but there really was no getting around it; it was what it was.

* * *

Eeth, in the meanwhile, had made a full circle around the camp. He found a large circular hut that was clearly the residence of the aged female being he had seen carrying off Raven's lightsaber. Thankfully, while the furry beings liked climbing, they did not seem to be tree dwellers. That would have made stealing from them all the harder. At the moment, getting his hands on Raven's saber without attracting attention was impossible, but hopefully these creatures would not be night-active. Once most of them were asleep and it was dark, things would be much easier.

He finished his circle around the remnants of the city and found a hiding place between the roots of a very old and huge tree, covered by a low-hanging branch. It was close to the dwelling, but far enough removed to make it unlikely for him to be found by accident. He conveyed his location through the Force to Drkai, who was well underway; using their comlinks was inadvisable as every message increased the risk of being detected by the smugglers.

* * *

The padawans' discomfort increased by the minute. Besides lying in Endal's pee, they were also hungry and thirsty and wondering whether the beings were planning on starving them.

That, at least, was clearly not the case. When the sun was already starting to set, two guards brought in a couple of large bowls containing what appeared to be venison stew with leaves and roots. It smelled wonderful to Endal although he was uncertain whether the food was edible for humans. Not that it mattered as neither he nor Raven had a choice in the matter. Their guards pulled the pair of them upwards and held the bowls up to their mouths. When they hesitated, both of them received a sharp poke with one of the knives. Vegetarian or not, they were forced to eat the stew. By this point, they were fervently hoping for their masters to come to the rescue, and soon!


	11. Chapter 11

Endal's discomfort became increasingly clear the closer Drkai got to the city, which drove the woman to run faster still. When she came upon their shuttle, however, it was surrounded by at least thirty, or was it forty? Monkeys? No, they weren't quite monkeys… But whatever they turned out to be, they were intelligent enough to carry tools, not to mention figure out that beneath the outer paneling of their shuttle lay colourful wires that drew their curiosity.

These creatures were most definitely sentient and really would hinder the Republic's plans for this planet. Oh well, they'd have to deal with that later. For now, there were far too many of them to use mind control and compelling them would not work. Instead, she concealed her presence and discretely entered through the emergency hatch on the roof where it was difficult for such small creatures to easily see. When the hatch clicked shut, the little creatures jumped back in shock, pointing their spears and knives up at the sound. When the engines roared to life, they were yelling and falling over each other. Some were fleeing, yet others were standing their ground and throwing their weapons at the now moving shuttle. Drkai took a moment to admire their bravery. Impressive.

After a short flight, she put the shuttle down on a ledge overhanging a waterfall where it would be exceedingly difficult for non-Force users to access it, and ran the kilometre and a half to the city Eeth had described. Once there, the Jedi leapt high onto a tall pillar and crouched low behind a mass of vines, concealing her presence as she scanned the area for the others. Immediately she sensed Endal and sent him reassurance; she wasn't going to let anything happen to him. It did not take her long to locate him and the others. Moments later, Drkai was beside Eeth, the two Jedi masters easily concealed in Eeth's hiding place.

"Our padawans seem to be uncomfortable, but in no immediate danger," Eeth told her quietly. "If that changes, Raven will contact me and we will intervene immediately. Unless that is the case, I would rather wait until dark and try to rescue them inconspicuously. An open rescue attempt would force us to kill and might endanger our padawans."

"I agree," said Drkai. "I've landed our shuttle about a kilometre from here and out of harm's way. It seems that these creatures are rather too curious for their own good." She sent the coordinates to his comlink.

"That will make things easier," said Eeth. "I intend to wait until most of these beings are asleep and then to incapacitate the guards with hyposprays. You will need to fetch those from our shuttle, but before you leave to do that, I will show you our last complication." Eeth led Drkai around the city to the leader's hut.

"This is where Raven's and Endal's lightsabers are hidden," he explained. "Do you think you can retrieve them while I rescue our padawans? Doing both things simultaneously would make matters a lot more straightforward."

"Yes, I believe so." The hut was large and well guarded, but the task was achievable. The two Jedi exchanged a brief glance, and then Drkai took off for the shuttle.

Drkai was back from their shuttle quickly and supplied Eeth with enough hyposprays to do his job while pocketing several herself. This would go easier if nobody had to die in the process. She left for the leader's hut and used the rest of their dwindling daylight to gradually slice a small hole through its outer wall. She knew from her earlier exploration with Eeth that there was a stone statue inside big enough to conceal her entry. Of course, she would need to be quiet about it.

Unfortunately, the two beings inside, along with the two standing guard outside, did not sleep when the rest of the village did. Sighing, Drkai soundlessly slipped through the hole she had made earlier and spotted Endal's lightsaber lying intact on a stone altar. Raven's, on the other hand, was ignited and currently held in the shaking grasp of what she thought might be the leader's partner, being encouraged by the matriarch herself. Thankfully, there were no more than these two inside the hut. Thus, Drkai flashed forward, administered both hyposprays and laid the two creatures gently on the sleeping mat, the process lightning fast and silent. If the guards outside came to check on them at any time, it could be assumed that they were merely sleeping.

Drkai clicked twice on her comlink, signalling to Eeth that she had completed her part of their plans. When she received a single click in return, she knew to go for the shuttle and took off.

It had taken Eeth a long time to find the right moment to enter Raven's and Endal's prison. Unfortunately, the planet's moons gave a dim light, and the entrance to the prison was not shaded by trees. Moreover, the creatures were alert and had very good hearing. Thus, disabling the three guards in front of the opening had required him to patiently wait for the right moment for quite a while. Finally, moving swiftly and silently, Eeth managed to put two of them out simultaneously while the third had turned his back. The third one made to raise an alarm, which Eeth could only prevent by knocking him out.

Very slowly, Eeth crawled towards the opening that seemed to lead towards a slope and a large cavern-like room. This was going to be difficult; the guards had lit a torch, and there was no way for him to enter without being seen. He spent some time observing the interior, counting on the contrast between light and dark to conceal him. Just as he had assumed, there were two guards, and they were prowling around their bound-up prisoners. Finally, Eeth decided on a strategy. He focussed on the torch and carefully, slowly levitated it out of the torch mount and towards the ceiling. When the beings noticed that, they stopped and stared, clearly frightened. Conveniently, they also had their backs to him. Putting them out with hyposprays was easy now.

Eeth signalled for the padawans to remain silent, quickly cut through their bonds and doused the torch in a tall jar of water. Then they made their way back up the slope, with Eeth pushing Endal upwards ahead of him and dragging Raven behind. Neither padawan could walk properly after having been bound tightly for hours. Thus, Eeth tossed Endal over his shoulder, pinned Raven under his arm and set off into the woods where he sensed Drkai, who was just landing the shuttle. Not a minute later, they were off, with no alarm having been raised.

The moment they were aboard, Drkai reached out through her bond with Endal. He was injured but not mortally so. She looked to Eeth, trusting him to deal with this.

"Head towards the east coast, we need to meet the underwater teams," Eeth instructed her. "Raven, Endal, are either of you hurt?"

Raven groaned up at her master. "Apart from the 'Fenesteer style' exit, I'm fine," she said weakly while flexing her fingers and stretching her legs to regain some circulation. She took a long drink from a canteen and glanced at Endal. "You okay?"

"I hope so," Endal said weakly. "Hungry and icky and smelly. And my head hurts; I think they bumped it against the stone floor a little too hard. Well, and I have scratched my leg a bit."

The rather deep cut on his left thigh stung fiercely, but for the moment, he thought that their getaway was probably more urgent.

Eeth immediately put a hand on his forehead and scanned him through the Force.

"A mild concussion," he said, frowning. "And your leg will need some attention, too. For now, recline your backrest and try to relax. We will need to get out of range of the smugglers as fast as possible in order for us to be able to contact the aquatic teams. It should take us about two hours to reach the east coast. We should be safe there."

The part of the east coast they were flying to was one of ragged beauty, with steep cliffs, fjords, lots of wild water rivers and dark, deep woods. They could use the wait to explore these parts. As Drkai had already told him, they needn't worry about the smugglers; they were planning on staying for about a week, which gave law enforcement enough time to send a ship. Unless the smugglers were surprised by the same furry beings that had captured Endal and Raven, of course!

"Very well," Eeth said, turning towards Raven. "What in the Force's name happened?"

Raven met Eeth with a resigned expression and launched into their tale. She explained how they had first seen the creatures, and how they too were resistant to mind manipulation, adding in that perhaps there was some sort of trend on this planet. She then gave a blow-for-blow account of their initial capture and the long, painful trip to the remains of the ancient city.

"Once we arrived, they tossed us in front of that huge statue, then just as quickly yanked us away and… that's where we lost our lightsabers." Raven looked utterly pitiful over having lost her weapon. "After they took everything off our belts, they rolled us into that hole and, well, that's about it," the girl concluded, looking at her hands for a moment. "I know you're probably not impressed by the fact that we disobeyed. But I just want you to know that we didn't do so on a whim," she said earnestly, sitting up a little higher on her knees to take the pressure off her numbing thigh. "I mean, we didn't have a lot of time to make our choices here. We decided that following at a distance, finding their 'homes' and returning with that information was part of the primary mission mandate. Even if we were discovered, we didn't actually expect to be captured by those little monkey things, I mean, really!"

"You should have expected it," Eeth said sternly. "I know it was an unforeseen situation and you had to make a decision fast. That might make your actions somewhat understandable but it does not make your decision any less dangerous. You should thank the Force that these beings did not decide to kill you before we could intervene. By the way, you will be glad to know that Master Luthan retrieved both your sabers."

"She did? I mean, you did?" Raven turned to look at Drkai, who nodded in response.

Drkai did, in fact, still have all three lightsabers clipped to her belt. She wordlessly reached to remove Raven's, passing it to Eeth who was closest. The navigation was calling for an input update so she returned to the instruments.

Thank the Force, thought Raven, and just as fast she felt ashamed over having seemed more interested in her lightsaber than what Eeth had to say about their close encounter. "We're sorry. But no, we didn't expect the unexpected from some creepy little monkey things!" admitted Raven, speaking for both herself and Endal here.

"Which was a mistake, as I am sure you can see now," said Eeth. He weighed Raven's lightsaber in his hand and finally clipped it to his belt, giving her a pointed look. He was not going to hand it back to her before they had had a thorough discussion about her misbehaviour.

Noticing the look of horror on her face but refusing to give her a chance to protest, he handed her two energy bars and a bottle of water for Endal.

"Eat," he said. "And give Endal something to drink. You might treat the cut on his leg if you feel up to it, but leave the concussion to me. We will talk more when we have arrived at our destination."

Raven obeyed, handing the bottle of water to Endal, but her eyes were still fixed on her lightsaber that now hung on Eeth's belt. He wouldn't take it off her on a mission like this. Surely not! How could she do her job? Swallowing at the thoughts that followed on from that, Raven did her best not to dwell on it and concentrated on helping Endal. He was looking pretty wasted and pale by this point. She unwrapped the energy bar for him and helped him drink some water, and then, she got him to pull down his trousers and took a look at the cut there. It wasn't deep enough to require stitching, yet neither was it trivial. "Ouch," she sympathised and got to work, pulling apart the medkit stuffed into the side panel of their shuttle. By the time she was done, Endal's cut was bandaged and he had passed out. Possibly due to exhaustion, or maybe it was the analgesic Raven had given him. Endal's sleep was fitful, though. His head hurt even in his dreams in which furry beings tried to cut his throat with stone knives.

"Padawan, try to get some rest as well," said Eeth. "We will still have some work to do once we reach the east coast. We will rendezvous with the aquatic teams there but it will take them a day or two to arrive."

Raven was exhausted. What was more, resting right now was not going to be easy, given that her adrenalin was still flowing. She looked at her lightsaber again, her jaw squaring and expression piteous as she tried to ignore the fact that Eeth hadn't given it back! "What did you find out about the ship, then?" she asked, attempting to keep the frustration and fatigue from her tone.

"Smugglers," Eeth replied. "They are planning on setting up a base here. We called law enforcement and will leave the problem to them. Now rest. I know that you are exhausted."

Raven huffed, crossed her arms about her chest and set her seat to recline. She wanted to ask more, but Eeth was right, she also wanted to sleep.

Once at a safe distance, Drkai had Eeth take the pilot's seat and spent the rest of their journey with Endal: he had not been sleeping well and he really needed to.

It was raining and pitch black dark when they arrived. Only the shuttle's lights gave them some sense of their whereabouts. Eeth decided on a landing point well away from the cliffs, in a heavily wooded area. He told Raven to stay in the speeder for the time being, which she was more than happy to do at this point, while he and Drkai set up the tents and organised some buckets of water.

"Padawan, get washed up and dressed into fresh clothes," Eeth told Raven. "Preferably before you enter our tent."

Too tired to protest, Raven did as she was told.

"Force, my clothes smell like a bantha's ass," she commented upon taking off her tunic and trousers. "Oh, wait. Correction. _I _smell like a bantha's ass." And with that, she knelt by the bucket of water Eeth had put behind their tent and started scrubbing.

Half an hour later, Raven was washed and dressed in a clean sleep shirt and underwear. She tossed her clothing outside and lay on her bedroll. "You know, I think it would be best for all involved if we burned that uniform," she suggested when Eeth entered their tent.

"Nonsense," Eeth said firmly. "We will wash it and it will be as good as new."

Raven gave him a beseeching look; her uniform bore a smattering of just about everything gross imaginable, after all.

They usually washed their clothes during their regular trips to the starship, but they had also used creeks and ponds for any immediate needs. Having the padawans wash their uniforms the old-fashioned way, Eeth mused, might be an effective punishment.

For now, he handed Raven a bowl of oatmeal. There had been no opportunity to gather fresh provisions, and he figured that this was preferable to starship food.

At this point, Raven would have happily eaten just about anything. Sure, they'd had breakfast and their captors had fed them, but it hadn't been nearly enough for two human children given the energy they had exerted. Thus, Raven was starving and did not even taste the oatmeal as she wolfed it down. She was tired, but also wary of Eeth's clipped comments and tone; he wasn't happy with her.

Eeth wordlessly gave her a second helping, which Raven ate in an awkward silence. When she had finished, he gathered the empty dishes and said, "Go and brush your teeth. It is late. I will check on Endal briefly and then we will both turn in."

"Yes, master," Raven replied, but her stomach was still feeling icy at his aloofness. Thus, she cleared her throat unnecessarily, causing him to pause before leaving their tent. "You're disappointed in me." It was as much a statement as it was a question.

Eeth paused for a moment, thinking about how to respond to this.

"I am not quite sure yet," he finally said. "I am very much relieved that you got out of the situation alive and basically unharmed. I am also concerned that you got into said situation in the first place. You disobeyed your orders, and we will discuss that thoroughly tomorrow. What I am not entirely certain of at this point is your motive for disobeying. You might want to think about that because we are definitely going to talk about it. But not now. You need to sleep. Get ready for bed. I will be right back."

Eeth found that Endal was already sleeping peacefully. Drkai had cleaned him up, and Eeth was sure that after a day or two of rest, the boy would be fine. There would be time to check on his wound and perform a Force-aided healing session tomorrow. It was not as if they had much to do until the aquatic teams arrived.

He returned to his own tent and lay down beside Raven, propping his head up on an arm.

"Do you need help going to sleep?" he asked.

"Have you ever known me to say no to this question?" Raven replied quietly. She wanted to talk about what happened NOW, but was doing a credible job at keeping those emotions from causing her to say something stupid, especially so while she was still in the bad books with Eeth. Raven pulled her sleeping bag down so that he could see her head. "Is Endal okay?"

"He is," Eeth said calmly. "Now sleep."

He put a hand on her forehead and stroked back her hair in a small gesture of affection, sending a light sleep compulsion in the process. Soon after, his padawan was out for the count.

The next morning, Drkai and Eeth let both padawans sleep in. The place they had chosen for a campsite, seen by light, was not too bad: well-hidden, close to water and offering some shadow. The rain had ceased during the night and the sun was up in the sky. Eeth had received a reply from one of the aquatic teams early in the morning. They promised to seek out the other team and join them by tomorrow.

Endal was awake well before Raven. His head still hurt a little, but not much. He stretched, rose to his knees and poked his head out of his tent, looking for his master. Drkai, however, had gone to scout their surroundings in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. Eeth had just lit a fire and was putting water to the boil. When Endal made to crawl out of his tent, Eeth turned around.

"Good morning, Padawan Endal," he said. "Go inside and lie back down. You have got a concussion and will need to rest, at least until I find the time to perform some healing."

Endal groaned. "Aww, c'mon," he protested. "You can't mean for me to be stuck in my tent on a morning like this?" He very nearly added, 'What did I do to deserve such punishment?', but on second thought, the answer was pretty obvious.

"Back to your mat," Eeth said adamantly, and Endal knew better than to disobey this tone of voice. Sulking a little, he lay back down. He had to admit it felt good; in fact, it felt so good that he went back to sleep after a short while.

When Raven eventually crawled from their tent that morning, she found Eeth lifting a pot from the fire. Still feeling sheepish over getting the cold shoulder, she decided that her best behaviour couldn't hurt.

"Master," she greeted him, offering a formal bow. "Can I help?"

"Good morning, padawan," Eeth replied, giving her a small smile. "I have just finished preparing breakfast. But get washed up and dressed before we eat. There is time. Endal is asleep, and Master Luthan is scouting the area for potential problems. How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she replied easily and was about to do as told when he mentioned that Endal was still sleeping. "He must have hit his head pretty hard if he's still out," Raven said, surprised.

"He woke up earlier, but I told him to lie back down," said Eeth. "He needs to rest, at least for the morning. I am not surprised that he fell asleep again. Yesterday was quite an ordeal for him. He has a mild concussion and it was quite late by the time he got some proper sleep. Now go and get dressed."

Relieved that Endal was okay, Raven took her time getting ready for their day. She washed thoroughly. Why? Because, heck, she still felt as if she smelled of that rotten fur, dirt, meat stew and pee! Then she dressed in a clean uniform and pulled on her boots. Her lightsaber was missing from her morning routine, and her heart sank at the memory of Eeth weighing it in his hand and clipping it to his belt the night before. Closing her eyes, the padawan blew out a sigh, fixed her hair and straightened her uniform before heading back out to where Eeth was finishing up with their breakfast.

"Eat," said Eeth, handing her a bowl of oatmeal. "Then we will talk." He served himself to some oatmeal, poured both of them a cup of tea and started eating.

Raven hated it when Eeth was pissed at her, as it left her with even less room than usual to question him or attempt to lighten the mood. Coughing once, she accepted the bowl, sat on a log opposite him and ate in yet another uncomfortable silence.

"Alright, padawan," said Eeth finally, setting his bowl aside. "What I really want to know is why you thought it was a good idea to disobey your clear orders. Did you do it because you honestly thought it was the only way to fulfil our mission objectives, or were you bored?"

"Well, no. I mean," Raven hesitated, "yes, we were bored when we spotted them, but I wasn't thinking about how exciting it would be, I was thinking about how pleased you and Drkai would be when Endal and I told you what we found. I also thought about your instructions not to leave the shuttle, and Endal and I talked about whether or not it would benefit the mission to disobey you. We decided that given the creatures didn't pose any obvious threat to us or the shuttle, it would be worth the consequences if we could provide you with information. That was our mandate, after all."

"Very well," said Eeth. "I will accept, for now, that you thought it was the right decision at the time. I will also grant you that you did not have much time to make it in the first place. I still happen to think that it was not a good choice. Why do you think that would be?"

Raven let her forehead fall into her hands; she didn't want to deliver reasons why he ought to punish her. She looked at him through splayed fingers. "Master, please, c'mon. What would you have done in our situation?"

"Stop trying to deflect my question," snapped Eeth. "What I would or would not have done in your place is beside the point. As a junior padawan, I might have made the same mistake. And my master would have called me to task for it in order to teach me to do better. I like to think she succeeded. And so will I. Now answer my question. If I have to ask you again, I will do so with you over my knee."

Raven folded her arms and her jaw tensed just a little bit. "Because you told us not to leave the shuttle, and we disobeyed. Then you had to leave your job with the smugglers to come save us because," she threw her hands up in the air, "we underestimated the creepy little fuckers and got ourselves caught." Raven wasn't happy about that particular eventuality, and it showed.

"Precisely," said Eeth. "Yesterday, you told me that you could not have expected the unexpected. Well, you should have. This will not be the last time that you find yourself on an unknown planet in a situation that is hard to assess, and underestimating the risks may turn out to be fatal. As a junior knight, I have seen a member of my mission team die because she did not expect our opponents' droidekas to be a match for us. Just like you, who neither thought that the furry beings would pose any danger you could not deal with, nor did you think that they might pose a threat to the shuttle. Both assumptions turned out to be wrong. You should never assume too much. When you do not have sufficient information, stick to your orders. Bear in mind that you are not a full Jedi Knight yet by a long shot. There are a great many dangers that you are not able to deal with, and not all of them are easily foreseeable."

"I know," Raven said through a sigh, having heard about the dangers of the universe ad nauseam. "We thought it was the right thing to do at the time, is all. It wasn't, and I'm sorry." She looked over at him. "It won't happen again."

"I hope so," said Eeth sternly. "Just out of curiosity: If you had managed to escape the beings that trapped you, would you have found your way back to the shuttle?"

Raven flinched at this question because…

"Uh!"

Fuck.

"At first, yes. But, by the time they sprang the trap, it all looked kinda the same," she admitted, slumping. The girl felt positively dimwitted at this point, and her pride was smarting to boot.

"I thought so," said Eeth. "Which makes your actions even more reckless. Padawan, once Master Drkai is back, I will take you into the woods and deal out a punishment that you will not soon forget. After that, you will wash the uniform you wore yesterday by hand until it is spotless. You will not receive any healing before you are done. I will give you back your saber for now because you might need it but once we are on the starship, it stays with me until a week after our return to the Temple."

At this point, Drkai entered. She had spent the last few hours scouting the outer circle of their campsite. While finding nothing dangerous, she had collected a variety of berries, some purple mushrooms that, despite appearances to the contrary, were neither hallucinogenic nor poison, several bushels of green kale-like leaves and a few tubers. She put her pack down and looked from Eeth's typical neutral expression to Raven's, which looked positively stricken. Whatever it was they had been discussing, Raven was not happy about it. "Fresh food will not be a problem here," she said in way of greeting and began pulling things from her pack. The leaves would wilt if they weren't soaked in water.

"Thank you," said Eeth. "We will have something other than starship food for lunch, then. Your padawan woke up earlier but after I told him to lie down and rest, he went back to sleep. Would you mind looking after the camp for a while? My padawan and I have a few things to discuss, and I would rather do so in private."

"Of course," Drkai said and had to work hard not to crack a smile when she noticed Raven was looking at her wide-eyed and shaking her head. She gave the girl an apologetic glance and then got back to her work. She would need to finish here, get some food on and check on her padawan.

Eeth rose. "Come with me, padawan," he ordered.

Eeth had led her quite a way into the woods before Raven started to digest her situation,and really think about what sort of punishment would qualify as one that she would not soon forget. It had to be horrendous in and of itself, and that wasn't taking into consideration all the other stuff he'd heaped on her; losing her lightsaber was a low blow. With each thought, Raven dragged her feet a bit more and fell a little further behind.

"Stop dawdling," said Eeth sternly.

Raven bore a hole in his back with her glare but picked up the pace all the same. She wasn't happy about this and despite trying desperately to come up with some way out of it, she couldn't. Everything she thought of could either be argued, wasn't logical or sounded desperate!

Unperturbed by Raven's glare, Eeth walked a bit further until their way was blocked by the trunk of a large fallen tree that Eeth deemed suitable for his purposes.

"Alright, padawan," he said, turning to face her. "Bare your bottom and bend over the tree trunk. It has just the right height."

Had this been but six months ago, Raven might have tried to argue her way out of it. As it was, she knew that doing so would only make this worse on herself. Thus, she squared her jaw, removed her belt, loosened her trousers and pulled the lot to her knees. The bark felt rough and cold against her skin. Nevertheless, Raven assumed the position that Eeth would expect and glanced over her shoulder to see what he was doing. What she saw had her resolve falter: he was busy cutting a sturdy switch from a nearby tree. She stood, both hands covering her backside. "Master… Please," she said, fear evident in her voice.

"Get back into position, padawan," Eeth ordered as he examined the switch and started removing buds from it.

Reluctantly, Raven turned to face the tree and bent over again. She didn't want to, but then, the alternatives would be much worse. Besides, Raven was still beating herself up over getting caught by those creepy little monkey things in the first place. Not to mention having gone out that far and been unable to find their way back to the shuttle! Raven twisted to see what Eeth was doing because he was taking forever, and wished she hadn't. The switch Eeth was currently whittling buds from was long, supple and fairly thick and looked like it was going to really, really hurt.

Eeth took his time smoothing the switch so as not to injure Raven's skin. Besides, he thought that a little anticipation and reflection on her upcoming punishment, as well as the reasons for it, could not hurt.

Finally, he stepped up beside Raven, switch in hand.

"Tell me why you are going to receive this punishment, padawan," he ordered.

Raven hated having to recap why she was about to get her ass handed to her. Hated it! Unfortunately, complaining about this often ended painfully. It wasn't worth it. Admittedly, it had taken her a while to learn that lesson. "Because I disobeyed your orders, underestimated the monkey things, pulled you from your duty with the smugglers, and endangered us and our shuttle. But," Raven shifted a bit, the pose neither comfortable nor dignifying. "I apologised, and don't you trust me that I mean it when I say I won't do it again? I won't. I swear," she said, her eyes pleading with him to cut her some slack here.

"Oh, I trust that you mean it," said Eeth curtly. "That does not guarantee you will remember this the next time temptation arises, though. I would rather make sure. Now, if you want to argue your punishment any further, I can always make it two switches instead of one. Your choice."

That wasn't much of a choice, and so Raven buried her face in her elbow and tried hard not to start crying. She wasn't a baby, and crying before it even started was not going to happen.

Eeth raised the switch and brought it down onto Raven's bottom half a dozen times in less than five seconds. He wanted to leave an impression, but he also wanted to get this over with.

Fortunately for Raven's pride, the shock of such a sudden onslaught of pain took the breath right out of her, and it wasn't until around the fourth or fifth swipe of that horrid switch that she managed to gather enough air to let out a wail. Each lick felt like a brand of stinging pain that just got worse and worse. When he paused at the sixth Raven was not only crying but had also risen up on her toes and twisted to the side. It stung mightily and was taking all her self-control not to reach back or stand up. "P-Please, no more!" she begged, her hand outstretched but not blocking her backside.

Eeth did not dignify this with a reply. He paused for barely three seconds, then dealt out a second set of six at the same breathtaking speed. It was extremely quick. He knew that it was also extremely painful.

Which was why Raven let out a squeal that, although not loud, was possibly close to shattering glass in pitch. By the time Eeth was done with the twelfth lick, she was crying like a five-year-old. That had stung her like nothing she'd ever felt before! "Won't. Do. I-it. Again!" she hiccupped, both hands clutching at her backside. She pushed herself up, stumbling a little, but desperate to be done with this punishment and back in Eeth's good graces once again.

"I did not give you permission to get up," Eeth said sternly and pushed her back across the tree trunk.

"No, master! Wait! Wait-Owwww!" Raven screeched as Eeth swiped that horrid thing across the backs of her thighs twice more. He thought those would teach his padawan that it was not up to her to decide when her punishment was over!

"_Now _you may get up," said Eeth, perfectly calm and composed.

At this point, Raven was neither. Still, this time she stayed down until Eeth said the word. As soon as he did, however, she shot up like a spring and jumped around as if somehow the action would magically transfer the sting from her ass to, well, heck, anywhere else would be fine with her right now! It was all very undignified, and not at all how Eeth would have accepted punishment, but she simply couldn't help it.

Eeth watched her for a minute and then decided that enough was enough. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, he said firmly, "Settle down, padawan. And come here."

That was easier said than done, yet Raven managed to stop her antics long enough to do as Eeth said. She wasn't happy with him; she rarely was after a punishment. Then, nor did she blame him for it. Arms folded, she locked her chin to her chest and tried to stop sniffling. "Sorry." It was the best she could manage without risking more tears.

"Apology accepted," Eeth said quietly, offering her the handkerchief. "Padawan, your disobedience aside, you scared me. You could have been killed had these beings decided to do so, and I would have been helpless to prevent it. I think they were more afraid of you than anything else, and frightened beings are usually capable of almost anything." He gently brushed a tear off her cheek with his thumb.

Raven accepted the handkerchief and blinked, her head lowering slightly. The gesture was appreciated, but she didn't want him to know that. Thus, she swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to straighten up. That Eeth was scared of anything at all came as a surprise. Actually, the fact that she had frightened him had not yet occurred to her. "I didn't mean to scare you," Raven said as earnestly as she could manage, given how much her ass hurt.

"I know you did not mean to scare me," Eeth said drily. "I doubt that you and Endal intended to get yourselves killed, let alone anticipated the impact that such a thing would have on Drkai or myself. Nevertheless, it might well have happened. I would prefer it if you avoided taking such risks, which is why you are being punished. And speaking of punishment: you have a uniform to clean now. Let us head back to camp."

"Oh joy," Raven sighed, resigned. She righted her clothing and wordlessly followed Eeth back to their camp. She wasn't mad at him, not exactly, but nor was she pleased with the punishment, as deserved as it might be.

When they reached the camp, Drkai was lying with Endal on a couple of sleep mats around their campfire eating breakfast. Endal had woken up feeling much better and Drkai had decided that moving his sleep mat to be out in the fresh air around the fire might be beneficial. She looked up as the two approached, blinking as Raven flitted to her tent without a word. She looked at Eeth briefly. "There is a pot of tea there if you'd like some."

"Thank you," said Eeth. "In a moment. I first need to look after my padawan who has a bit of uniform cleaning to do."

He gave Endal a meaningful look and went to follow Raven. It was up to Drkai if she wanted to make Endal suffer the same punishment, of course, but both she and Endal ought to at least know that it was an option, he thought.

Given that Endal had not long woken up, Drkai had not spoken to her padawan about the possible consequences for his disobedience. However, if the disheveled appearance of Raven was anything to go by, she knew how Eeth had chosen to discipline his ward. Well, they both deserved as much and Drkai planned on making sure that Endal received similar treatment for his role in this. Before she could broach the topic, however, Endal spoke up.

"Uh, master?" he ventured. "I don't know how to put this, but, ummm, are you very mad with me? And is Master Eeth? I mean, is Raven alright? He did let her live, didn't he?"

What he really meant to ask was, would the man let _him_ live, and would Drkai? But he did not quite dare ask.

"As you saw, Raven is very much alive and you're going to live also," Drkai said, hiding slight amusement over the melodramatics. "Although I would like to know in your words what happened before we start talking about levels of displeasure here."

Endal sighed. "Isn't it abundantly clear what happened?" he asked.

"It is. But I want to hear it from you," said Drkai.

Endal rolled his eyes. He found this aggravating. As far as he was concerned, there was no need to rehash his misdeeds. He would have to be very stupid indeed not to realise that he and Raven had made a mistake. But of course, Drkai would insist on rubbing it in!

"Well, we saw these beings, we were curious, and we thought it was our mission objective to find out more about them," he said in a tone of voice that was only just on the right side of respectful. "Plus, I was bored. So I suggested we follow them. Raven was hesitant at first but in the end she went along with it. Turned out the beings were more intelligent than we'd given them credit for. They captured us, you rescued us. That's all, unless you want to hear the details of how they took our sabers and I peed my pants."

"Firstly, don't roll your eyes and get an attitude with me. I wasn't the one who disobeyed orders, went off halfcocked after some unknown beings into a dire situation where I ended up concussed, forced to wet my pants and lost my lightsaber! Granted, finding these beings was part of our mission mandate, I'll give you that. But you had no idea what they were capable of, and boredom should have nothing whatsoever to do with your decision. At your current level of training, when there is doubt, you stick to your orders." Drkai's tone was a damned sight harsher and more critical than was typical for her but from what she had just heard, Endal had showed less responsibility than Raven. A surprise, to be sure. Drkai closed her eyes, took a breath, and when she opened them again, her tone had calmed slightly. "You might have been killed and I would not have been able to reach you in time to prevent this. So, here is what's happening. You are going to finish your breakfast, and then you will go back to your tent to rest. I will have Master Koth come speak to you and hopefully he can offer you some healing, but not before you offer an apology and agree to accept any consequences he might want to impose on you as our mission leader. Only after this will we talk more about what further punishment I might want to impose. Any questions?"

Endal looked at her with wide eyes. He had not really expected to get away with this without punishment, but offering himself up to Eeth for one was not something he was looking forward to. Granted, Drkai had not actually told him to ask Eeth for punishment but then, he could not see Eeth, of all people, forgiving disobedience without having spanked the backside off of him first. Moreover, his master seemed to be pretty mad; he had rarely heard her speak to him in such a tone of voice.

He picked up a piece of fruit listlessly and turned it in his hand.

"Don't you think we've been punished enough?" he asked in a small voice. "I mean, we've been bound with ropes, bruised, poked with knives, threatened with death, forced to pee ourselves and whatnot. I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but after all this, we do realise that we made a mistake."

"Yes, I would hope that you did come to that realisation. However, what you and Raven did deserves more than the natural consequences. You know better than to disobey, regardless of the circumstances. You are not yet old enough to decide when disobeying an order is the correct choice. Which is why you leave it to us and follow our instructions. I could have lost you, padawan." Drkai paused for a moment to let the reality of that statement really sink in.

Endal badly felt like informing her that, contrary to appearances, he had _not _actively tried to get himself killed. But since he was not completely suicidal, he refrained from voicing this thought.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks again for sticking with us through these crazy times and especially for writing reviews. We always love to hear what you guys think of our stories, and we sincerely hope that you are all keeping well and staying safe.

This is the last chapter for this story. Keep an eye out for our next Jedi adventure: "Elemental" wherein we are introduced to Lakhri's new padawan, Flynt, for the first time. Anyways, enjoy the final chapter of Out in the Wild, and be safe!

* * *

Endal finished the rest of his breakfast in moody silence. He knew that he and Raven had disobeyed their orders, but really, he could not think of a padawan who would have let pass by such an opportunity to contribute to their mission! Besides, had they stayed with the shuttle, who knew whether the furry beings wouldn't have discovered it and endangered both them and their transport?

After a few minutes, Eeth and Raven emerged from their tent. Eeth had returned her saber to Raven, found a bar of soap for her and sent her off towards the creek to wash her soiled uniform while he headed towards the fire to serve himself some tea.

Drkai helped Endal settle himself back in their tent. He seemed to be in a touchy mood, and some more rest would help with that. It also gave Eeth some time to at least serve his tea and have a few sips before she asked another favour of him.

"Eeth," Drkai said after a couple of minutes had passed. "If it's not too much of an imposition, would you see if there is anything you can do to help with Endal's concussion?" Drkai did not feel it necessary to explain Endal's other instructions to Eeth. Despite behaviour that recently proved otherwise, Drkai trusted Endal to obey, and she could deal with him if he did not.

"I will," said Eeth. "In fact, I was planning to. My padawan will be busy for a while, I expect. Just so you know, she also received a thorough switching and I will confiscate her saber for a while once we are back on the starship. Of course, it is entirely up to you to decide what kind of consequences will be appropriate for Endal."

Drkai thanked Eeth and sipped her tea, digesting the rest of what he had said. "Endal has his instructions for the time being," she decided on. "If it's alright with you, when Raven has finished with her uniform, I'll take her out for an hour or so to scout the cliffs. I don't sense danger. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be the first time this planet has taken me by surprise."

"Certainly," said Eeth. "Go ahead and do so. But offer her some bacta before you leave. I will provide healing when you are back."

He went to notify Raven, giving her strict instructions to obey Master Drkai in all matters, and then entered Endal's tent.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, kneeling down next to the boy and placing a hand on his forehead.

"Much better," Endal said. "My head hardly hurts any more." His master had also told him to apologise to Eeth, but he figured that would lead to a rather unpleasant discussion and might wait. Maybe he would do it later. Or maybe not.

"Good," said Eeth. "I will perform some healing now. You should be fine after that. Please enter a light meditative trance and drop your shields."

"Alright," Endal said, a little sullenly. Eeth frowned at the tone of voice and at the attitude he sensed emanating from the boy. It was unusual for Endal; he was normally a fairly compliant young man and readily admitted his mistakes. For the moment, Eeth did not comment. Instead, he focussed on healing the concussion as best he could.

Twenty minutes later, he withdrew from the healing link and signalled for Endal through the Force to resurface from his trance.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked.

Endal shrugged. "Better," he said. "Thanks."

There was a pregnant pause because Eeth, while being unaware that Drkai had ordered Endal to apologise, happened to think that an apology was in order. Endal realised as much. Heaving a sigh, he decided that it was all for the better; today was probably not a good day to disobey his master's clear instructions.

"Sorry for disobeying you," he mumbled without looking Eeth in the face.

"That was a poorly presented apology if ever I heard one," Eeth said sternly. "Look at me."

Endal looked up reluctantly. There was a distinct pout on his face.

"You both act like I murdered someone," he complained. "It's not fair! Okay, so we made a wrong decision. But we didn't know this situation would occur, no more than you did, and we had to decide fast. We did what we thought would help our mission most. It turns out that maybe it didn't. So what? We are the ones who got kicked around and threatened and imprisoned by a bunch of furry beings, not you, so I don't know why my master and you keep acting like we've got to pay for it when we already did and when we did not even mean to do anything wrong!"

"I see," Eeth said frostily. "So you did not realise, at the time, that you were disobeying your orders?"

"That's not what I said," Endal retorted hotly. "Of course we did. We just… well, we thought we had good reason to disobey our orders!"

"Junior padawans hardly ever have good reason to disobey their orders," Eeth replied coolly. "Had you been attacked or actually forced to leave the speeder, I would not find an issue with it. However, you made a decision, and one that involved conscious disobedience. And now you seem to be unwilling to pay the price for that."

"So, independent thought and action is not required from junior padawans," Endal said bitterly. "Nor are we expected to make any real contribution to this mission."

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "You will get to make independent decisions when you are able to deal with unforeseen situations on your own," he said cuttingly. "That involves skills such as detecting traps before becoming trapped in them or defending yourself even when outnumbered. Your master is working hard to teach you those skills. I am sure she would be grateful if you could oblige her by not getting yourself killed before you have made it there."

"Yes, because I tried to get myself killed on purpose," Endal replied sarcastically.

Eeth's mouth tightened into a thin line. Wordlessly, he unbuckled his belt, removed his lightsaber and utilities and put them down at his side. He then grabbed Endal's shoulders, turned him around onto his stomach, pushed up his tunic and pulled down his pajama pants and underpants in one deft motion.

"Hey!" Endal protested, twisting in Eeth's grip. It suddenly occurred to him, rather belatedly, that he might have crossed several lines with the man and that this might not have been a good idea.

"Listen, I'm sorry," he pleaded, reaching back with his hands to cover his bottom and trying simultaneously to turn his vulnerable behind away from the man. "I apologised, didn't I?"

"Yes, with less than good grace and with far too much of an attitude," Eeth snapped. He grabbed Endal's hands with his left, pinning them against the small of his back and thus immobilising him effectively. With his other hand, he picked up his belt, doubled it over in his hand and brought it down onto the boy's bottom smartly. It was clear that Endal was having issues, and it was equally clear that talking was not the way to resolve them. He did not intend to indulge this futile discussion for one moment longer.

"Ouch!" yelled Endal. The lick had hurt, a lot; Eeth had not been holding back much. It had been enough to bring tears to his eyes. He tried to say something, anything, to get Eeth to reconsider, but before he could even get a word in, he had received a second lick and then a third. By the time Eeth had reached half a dozen, Endal's yelps had intermingled into one continuous howl, but Eeth did not stop there. He dealt out a full dozen strokes, and when he was done, Endal's bottom was a mass of dark red welts. The boy was reduced to sobbing helplessly, all defiance gone.

Eeth let him cry for a minute. When the sobbing did not seem to quiet down, he put his right hand onto Endal's back in a comforting gesture and offered him a handkerchief with his left. Seeing that Endal accepted the gesture, or at least did not resist it, Eeth pulled the boy towards him and let him rest his head in his lap. To his surprise, Endal practically flung himself at him and hugged him fiercely around the waist, sobbing even louder, if that was at all possible.

"I'm sorry!" he wailed. "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Don't know what got into me. I was, I, I…" He resumed his sobbing, unable to speak.

"It is alright," Eeth said gently, smoothing back the padawan's dark blond hair. "Apology accepted. You have been punished, and all is forgiven."

Endal nodded into the folds of Eeth's robes, crying more quietly now.

"I think," Eeth suggested, "you should meditate on just what it was that made you behave like you did, and talk about it with your master. It is not like you to be as disrespectful as all that. There was a lot of anger underneath that behaviour, and you need to deal with it."

Endal nodded again.

"I will," he whispered, sounding genuinely contrite now.

Strangely enough, he felt better. Not his bottom, of course; his bottom was burning fiercely and even the thought of sitting down any time soon made him cringe. But his heart felt more at ease than it had at any point since they had been rescued from their captivity. Whether willingly or not, Eeth had provided him with some way to release his feelings.

"I'm sorry," he said again, and much more sincerely than the first time around. "Not only for my disobedience, but also for the stupid things I said. Of course I know I was wrong. I have no idea what got into me to act like I did. You're right, I should try to find out. I will meditate on it and talk to my master."

"Spoken like a young Jedi," Eeth said with a small smile. "Now get some rest, and then meditate. I will send your master in when she is back."

Two hours later Drkai led a tired out Raven back into their campgrounds.

"Cliffs are clear, master," Raven announced, sitting down opposite him to pull off her boots; her socks were soaked.

"Good," said Eeth, giving her a brief smile as he looked up from the pot of stew he was stirring.

"They are, but we will be monitoring the entire area closely; this planet has been far from predictable," Drkai added, running a hand through damp hair. She and Raven had run into a patch of rain and were subsequently both soaked. "Go change and hang your stuff up to dry," Drkai ordered, pulling her tunic off and hanging it by their small fire.

Once Raven had gone to do as told, Drkai looked to Eeth. "I sensed quite a bit of distress from my padawan. Is there anything I should know?" She pulled off her pants, hung them by her tunic and sat opposite Eeth, clad in a singlet and undershorts; at least these were still dry enough.

"Yes," said Eeth quietly. "You might want to talk to him soon. He was pulling quite an attitude, and I ended up taking my belt to him. I had not actually planned this but I felt that he left me no other choice. He insisted on justifying his actions and claiming that he fell victim to circumstances, which was simply unacceptable. I get the impression that there is some deeper issue beneath his obstinacy."

"I see. This is the first mission of any real danger that Endal's experienced. I suspect that he is struggling to deal with the realities of our duties. We all go through it to some extent, at some point." Drkai smiled knowingly, tied her hair into a knot at the base of her neck and then stood. "Did he offer you an apology?" Because struggling though he might be, this had been one of his orders.

"Yes, after a lot of procrastination and with bad grace," said Eeth. "Which is quite unlike him. You might be right that he has a hard time dealing with the reality of risking his life. In any case, I thought I would rather leave it to you to deal with this."

Drkai nodded, looking up just in time to see Raven emerging from her tent dressed in a dry uniform, although her hair was a hot mess. "Your padawan did a good job today; she's improving." And with that, she left to speak with her own apprentice.

When Drkai entered their tent, she found Endal sleeping. She sat by his side and stroked his hair, knowing that this would ultimately wake him up.

Endal stirred and squinted. He had not meant to fall asleep but it had happened anyway. Consequently, the meditation that Eeth had told him to perform had not happened. Maybe it was for the better; he had an idea what he would find and it was not pretty. Which was why he was not at all keen on talking to his master.

"Go'way," he mumbled, turning his back to her and pulling the blanket around himself.

Drkai rolled her eyes. "That line has never worked on me before, and it's not about to start. C'mon, sit up. I want to talk to you." She pulled the blanket off him and sat cross legged. His backside was undoubtedly sore, but she thought sitting on his soft mattress would not cause him too much discomfort for the time being, and she wanted his full attention.

Endal reluctantly rolled around and sat up, wincing as he did so. Eeth had not gone easy on him and while the discomfort was bearable, as Drkai had assumed, it was definitely there. Which did nothing for his mood.

"I don't really want to talk," he said without looking at his master.

"Well, then it's a good thing I wasn't asking what you want." She gave him a meaningful look, ignoring his sulky attitude in order to try and draw him out. "I know this mission has been hard on you. You're discovering what it really takes to follow the career you have chosen for yourself, and the realities of our life can be hard to deal with at first. I can't help you if you don't talk to me, though. So spill."

Endal shrugged. "There's nothing to spill," he said sullenly. "I apologised to Master Eeth but he didn't like my apology and gave me a belting."

"Yes, I heard. I also hear that your apology was delivered with less than good grace and entirely too much attitude. I think what happened to you and Raven scared you. And I think that you're having trouble dealing with that." Drkai gave him a serious look; she was doing her best to drag all of this to the surface peacefully here.

Endal shrugged again. "If you already know what's bothering me, why do you want to talk?" he asked, rather belligerently.

Drkai frowned, not dignifying that with an answer. "I'm getting tired of this sulky attitude of yours. If you are not willing to talk, then perhaps you need some more time to meditate on your current attitude. Half an hour, and then we will try this again."

"How about we don't and pretend we did?" said Endal, making no move to comply. He did not want to meditate because he knew that would leave him an emotional wreck. And that if there was one thing he did not feel like, it was falling apart in front of his master!

"It was not a request. Meditation, right now," And at this point, Drkai's tone was quiet and serious. She thought she knew what was going on with Endal. This behaviour was very unlike him, after all.

"Not now," said Endal in an uncharacteristically whiny voice. "Can't we do it later? C'mon, master. I had a concussion. I'm tired."

"Apparently, the belting you received failed to improve your attitude towards your duty as a padawan. So be it." Done with the talking, Drkai rose to a kneeling position and pulled her padawan across her knee, holding him down firmly by the collar. Then, because both conversation and orders had failed, she used her free hand to flip up the back of his tunic, pulled his trousers to his knees and started spanking his backside. Hard.

Endal did not resist his master but neither did he cooperate. As the first smack fell, he gritted his teeth. This hurt, especially so over the thorough belting he had received from Eeth. But he was not going to give his master the satisfaction of crying out, he thought stubbornly. He had survived capture by the furry beings; he could survive a spanking, too!

Sensing her padawan's obstinacy only firmed up Drkai's resolve; not only did he need this from her, but he had also earned it. Thus, she shifted slightly and landed another set of three, just as hard as the first. "This will continue until you are ready to drop the sulky attitude and comply with my orders," she said.

Endal meant to endure this stoically, he really did. But for some reason, it did not work. He had received barely more than half a dozen swats when the situation, combined with the sting of the spanking, became overwhelming and he started sobbing, all resistance leaving him.

At this point, Drkai delivered three more hard swats for good measure and then let her hand rest on his lower back in a comforting gesture. "Are you ready to comply with my orders?"

At this point, Endal was bawling for all he was worth, not because of the pain but because he was overwhelmed by a rush of intense emotion. He was ashamed, afraid, confused and also quite embarrassed at his defiance, which was not at all his typical behaviour.

"M'sorry," he brought out between hysterical sobs. "I-I'll m-meditate b-b-but I d-don't think I c-c-c-an. Help me. Please."

Drkai lifted Endal from her lap and set him down to kneel opposite, her hands remaining on his shoulders for support. "You can, and of course I will help you. We will work through this together." She summoned a handkerchief from her bag, handed it to her padawan and gave him some time to right his clothing, clean himself up a little and see if he would settle down enough to meditate. It was breaking her heart to see him like this, but Drkai could deal with that. Right now her padawan needed her.

Endal, however, was nowhere close to calming down. He was in shock. He had led the sheltered life of a Jedi youngling, had dreamt of glorious missions which he would master effortlessly – maybe more with his wits than with his saber but those would still leave him victorious. He had definitely not pictured himself bound and threatened and hurt and forced to pee his pants by furry beings half his size. Reality was infinitely more unpleasant, scary and messy than his imagination had been, and he found himself unable to cope with it.

"M-master," he brought out between hiccoughing sobs. "Have you ev-ver been r-really sc-cared?"

"Yes, I have," Drkai agreed, moving to his side, wrapping a long arm around his back and pulling him close to her. "Too many times to count, and as recent as yesterday. You know, when Raven's duress went off and it was confirmed that the two of you were in trouble, I thought I might lose you. That scared me, it scared me a lot," the Jedi confessed and closed her eyes for a moment, allowing the emotion to leave into the Force. "It is normal to feel scared. As you grow and gain experience, you learn to deal with strong emotions more effectively." Drkai was content to hold Endal for as long as he needed in order to vent; what they'd gone through had been no small thing, after all.

"But it wasn't your fault," he brought out between sobs and tears, clinging to her as if his life depended on it while hiding his face in her robes. "You came to our rescue as soon as you could. You were capable and competent and solved the problem while I was an utter failure. I was clueless, helpless and _scared_, and I'm still scared even to think of it. I- I- I thought they'd kill me when they threw me down in front of that statue. I thought being a Jedi meant being in control, and not succumbing to your fears. You know what I feel like? Like a scared little boy posing as a Jedi padawan. I'm so scared it made me angry, and I was so angry I actually vented it on Master Eeth, of all people. And then I thought about meditating on it, like he told me to, but I knew that all my fears would come to the surface and I was too much of a coward to risk that. I suck as a Jedi!"

"You do not _suck _as a Jedi, nor are you clueless, helpless or a failure. You also know how I feel about such self-deprecating comments." Drkai raised a hand, cutting short any arguments Endal might want to offer. "What you lack is experience, which will come in time, as will your ability to deal with strong emotions. You need to trust the Force, trust me to guide you and be prepared to do what it takes to become the Jedi you are destined to become. Meditation will help with that." Not wanting to let this escalate, Drkai stretched her legs out and put her other arm around him. "Link with me," she ordered, closing her eyes.

Still crying but no longer willing to antagonise his master, Endal complied. After an hour or more of anxiety-filled, nerve-wracking meditation that he would never have accomplished without her help, he felt much better and calmer, but also totally exhausted.

"I'm sorry for the dumb stuff I said," he murmured. "I had just thought real adventures during real missions would be… well, a lot more exciting and glamorous than they turned out to be."

"That's a common misconception. Unfortunately, and despite being told otherwise ad nauseam by your teachers, it often takes a mission like this before the reality really sinks in. You aren't the only one to have thought as much, myself included."

"Why, what happened that would make you think so?" asked Endal curiously. He knew quite a bit about the missions his master had performed as a knight but her junior padawanhood had only ever been mentioned in passing.

Drkai shifted so that they were both a bit more comfortable. She was still aware that his backside would not be appreciating all this kneeling and sitting. "Come to think of it, you know, I was about your age," Drkai reflected. "My master and I were sent to assist several teams of Jedi who were aiding a cluster of planets to rebuild after a war between them had all but wiped them out. For the most part, it was a peaceful and rewarding mission. We helped the leaders to rebuild their relationships and create new laws which would ensure the peace continued. There were a few pockets of local militia who were unwilling to settle, who wanted the war to continue, and my master and I, as well as two other teams, happened to find ourselves caught up in one such fight. It was brutal, and many lives were lost, including a padawan whom I had become close friends with. Until that moment, I hadn't really considered my own mortality or the pain of losing a friend, for that matter." Drkai closed her eyes, but when she opened them to look at her padawan there was no sense of grief or sadness remaining, just understanding. "Afterwards, I felt unable to continue my career as a Jedi, and when my master tried to console me, to remind me of the sometimes harsh reality that is our lives as Jedi, I came close to quitting the Order. I would have, too, had my master not guided me to see that the path I'd chosen for myself was as much the Will of the Force as it was of my own choosing. As is yours, padawan." The story was one that she had not relived in a very long time, yet the lesson it imparted had remained with her. Endal's own experience would remain with him also, she knew.

Endal was silent for a long moment. "I guess we were lucky that no lives were lost this time," he finally said quietly.

"We were," Drkai agreed. "Although in this case, the risks could have been eliminated or, at the very least, mitigated had you obeyed. I cannot stress enough how important it is to follow your orders. Therefore, there are going to be consequences. Firstly, when we leave this planet, you will do an additional half an hour of meditation each afternoon during your free time. The subject and length of this meditation will be at my discretion. Secondly, I want an essay on the dangers of a self-deprecating attitude. I'm done listening to you berate yourself, now you're going to tell me why it's unproductive. And thirdly, tomorrow morning I'm going to spank you, after which you will go and wash out your soiled uniform by hand." Drkai knew this was quite a lot of punishment, but she also knew that it was what would work for her padawan.

Endal winced. This was not only a lot of punishment, it was also about three times as much punishment as his master had ever meted out to him. On the other hand, the thought of what Raven was probably having to deal with right now stifled any protests he might want to utter. Or at least most of them.

"Yes, master," he said in a small voice. "You do realise that Master Eeth already gave me a belting, though?"

"I do, and I believe it was a consequence of your poor attitude, not disobedience during our mission." Drkai rubbed his shoulder briefly. She would ask Eeth to provide some healing for his backside later, but for now, she thought the discomfort was both bearable and warranted. "Lunch will be ready soon. For now, I want you to stay here and rest."

"Alright, master," said Endal. His eyelids were already drooping. This morning had thoroughly exhausted him!

The rest of their day was relatively uneventful. Drkai and Raven did several more runs around the perimeter not only to check for predators, but also to gather a good supply of fresh food that they would use on their eight-day trip back to the Temple. Both masters had decided that given their discoveries, it was best to leave this planet. It was not suitable for colonization given the existing inhabitants, regardless of what the underwater teams turned up.

* * *

"Master," Raven hedged, approaching the two Jedi masters seated around their campfire but stopping at a polite distance from Eeth. "Can I sit with you for a while?" It was late, and both Endal and Raven were supposed to be asleep long ago, but Raven had woken up. It wasn't because her ass hurt; Eeth had healed the worst of that for her and Endal before they slept. It was more that she didn't want to be too far from him right now. Although far less rattled by their capture than Endal had been, Raven was not without her moments of weakness, and she didn't want to be alone right now.

Eeth opened his mouth to inform Raven that she was supposed to be in bed but reconsidered. He sensed some kind of emotional need from her that he could not quite place.

"Come here, padawan," he said gently, raising his right arm and inviting her to lean into his side. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Raven replied, content. Because now that she was by his side, it was telling the truth.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "If it was nothing, you would be in bed," he said. "So?"

Raven blew out a sigh, but it was half-hearted at best. "So, I might be wanting your company." When this only got a look in response, Raven pulled her knees into her chest and confessed in a whisper: "Maybe I'm just a bit worried about stuff, you know…"

Eeth pulled her into his side and brushed her hair back in a small gesture of affection. "Stay with us for a while," he said softly. "After that, we will meditate, and then I will help you sleep."

* * *

The aquatic teams arrived around noon the next day. They discussed the situation with Eeth and Drkai at length. In the end, all Jedi agreed it was best to leave Arkuna and report their findings to the Council and Senate while letting law enforcement deal with the smugglers. The aquatic teams had arrived with their own starship. By late afternoon, they left while Eeth, Raven, Drkai and Endal were packing their shuttle.

"We will need to travel into the night to reach our ship," said Eeth, "but I feel that this is preferable to spending another night at a campsite."

Drkai agreed. Thus, it was almost two in the morning when they finally arrived at their starship. Both Endal and Raven were fast asleep.

"Padawan, wake up," Eeth said, shaking Raven's shoulder. "You may go on sleeping once you are aboard."

"Huh?" murmured Endal who was stirring awake just as Drkai, too, made to wake up her padawan. "Oh. Alright." Eyes half closed, he struggled to sit up and allowed Drkai to steer him towards the ship and his cabin.

"As far as boring long-ass shuttle trips went, this one had to have been the best," Raven told Eeth as she changed into a sleepshirt. Raven had slept six hours of what would usually be mind-numbingly boring stillness, and given they had an eight-day trip back to Coruscant to 'look forward to', the reprieve had been a welcomed one. "What are you and Drkai doing now? Do you want me to help?"

"I want you to sleep until morning," said Eeth. "Master Drkai and I are going to set us on a course to Coruscant and then we will turn in ourselves. You need your sleep."

"Alright," Raven said through a yawn and climbed into bed. She was pretty worn out; it had been a tough mission both emotionally and physically.

"Good night, padawan," Eeth said softly, turning off the lights.

* * *

The next morning, Eeth shook Raven awake at seven.

"Padawan, time to get up," he said firmly, pulling her blanket off.

Raven reflexively curled into a ball. However, given that the last time she had complained about getting out of bed, Eeth had dumped her into the ocean, she didn't complain. Well, maybe a grumble here and there about unsympathetic, slave driver masters as she went to shower.

Eeth pointedly ignored her grumbling. However, as she emerged from the shower, he said, "Padawan, give me your saber. You have no need for it now."

It had crossed Raven's mind the night before to roll her lightsaber up in her dirty uniform, in the hopes that Eeth would forget about taking it off her. At his words, she kinda wished she had, at the very least, tried that. "Master. I learned the lesson already," she whined. Of all the consequences Eeth meted out, losing her lightsaber was one that Raven hated the most! "Endal isn't losing his and we committed the same offence. How is this fair?" she added, reluctantly pulling her weapon from her bedside drawer.

"Endal is Master Luthan's concern," Eeth said coolly. "You are mine. And you are not getting out of this punishment."

"That isn't an answer, it's deflection," Raven huffed and thrust her lightsaber out for him to take. She wasn't happy about this, not in the slightest, but what could she do about it? Eeth had never changed his mind before.

"If you want an answer, ask Master Drkai," snapped Eeth. "I will not stand for your impertinence. And therefore, I will add one day to the time that your saber stays with me." He took the saber from her hand and clipped it to his belt.

"Now brush your hair and let us have breakfast," he said.

"But, you, you c…." Raven started, only to think better of it and fell silent; impertinent she may have been but suicidal she was not! And Eeth would probably just add more days if she kept bucking his authority. Still, Raven wasn't happy as she stomped off to do as told.

Drkai and Endal joined them to help with breakfast shortly after. Drkai noticed that Eeth was carrying Raven's lightsaber. Well, that explained Raven's sulky mood this morning, thought Drkai, when her second attempt to lighten her up a little fell flat. Endal had an essay to write on the dangers of a self-deprecating attitude and meditations to complete, both of which she knew would benefit him. She had also made him clean his uniform as Raven had, and spanked him for their poor choices during the final part of their mission. Confiscating his lightsaber? No, that would probably be a blessing instead of a punishment as far as Endal was concerned. "We will work out a routine for you both today," announced Drkai, passing some more toast to her padawan. She and Eeth had yet to discuss what might take place on the trip back, but she did have a few things that she wanted to finish up with Raven, as well as some exercises to start her on.

"As far as I remember," said Eeth, pouring himself some tea, "my padawan will have lines to write in place of a workout."

Raven just looked at him, her expression a mixture of shock and horror. Grasping at straws, the padawan rose up onto her knees so that they might be at least more similar in height. "Wait a moment. Isn't there some sort of statute of limitations on this sort of thing?" she asked Eeth, in barely controlled disbelief. Because, surely too much time had passed to render her still accountable!

"Padawan, you are already walking on thin ice this morning," said Eeth in a tone of voice that suggested she had better back down, fast. "If I remember correctly, I told you to write one hundred times 'My saber is a weapon, not a toy, and I will not use it foolishly again.' I felt that you needed to learn that lesson three days ago and this has not changed."

Raven slumped back onto her heels, arms folded, but said nothing more. There wasn't much else she COULD say without making it all ten times worse, especially given his tone and inflexion.

Drkai refrained from further attempts to placate Raven; her behaviour had earned consequences, as had her own padawan's, for that matter.

"Well, I'll have an essay to write," said Endal. He did not sound all that unhappy. It was much better than working out with Eeth, after all!

"Yeah, but you'll probably enjoy that," Raven pointed out. She was feeling hard done by but also aware that too much griping would get Eeth's back up.

"Speaking of schedules," Drkai looked at Endal. "I'd like for you to continue working with Master Koth. You should be making the most of this opportunity, after all. If that's acceptable to you, of course?" The latter was directed at Eeth.

"It is," said Eeth. Endal barely managed to suppress a groan.

"The same goes for you," said Eeth to Raven, ignoring Endal's obvious lack of enthusiasm. "I would like you to continue your work with Master Luthan until our arrival, and intermittently thereafter." That much had already been agreed upon between himself and Drkai. After all, this was an area of education that would help Raven develop an important skillset.

Raven was surprised at the news that she'd be working with Drkai after their return to the Temple. It was welcomed, though, and so she did not complain.

* * *

In fact, their trip back to the Temple was almost over before Raven deemed to complain about anything at all. "There is just too many of them," she said in exasperation, swatting at her arm and jumping away. "Ten, twenty, even thirty I can deal with, but that swarm is impossible." Raven and Drkai were now working with a species that they had taken a sample colony of from Arkuna. They were similar to minuscule wasps with stingers that were almost as long as their bodies; it was most unpleasant if things got out of hand.

"Remember what I told you about the dominant animal in a species with a linked consciousness?"

Raven huffed but nodded. She had not forgotten what Drkai had said about singling out the leaders, but it was still hard to do when their behaviours were so similar and you were forced to search each mind to figure which was which.

Drkai sympathised and was not disappointed when Raven closed her eyes once again and dove into the task. "You've improved. You've improved in a lot of areas, actually," said Drkai when they were done and their mini companions were back safely in their colony's enclosure.

"If you say so," came the slightly worn reply. Then again, Eeth had said as much also. He had not exactly praised Raven for withholding further complaints about the loss of her lightsaber, but he had shown recognition at her efforts in small ways. A smile of approval when she'd come to him without snarkiness and requested her weapon for training, or a nod when she had offered to help with their mission report and given him a verbal recitation when it was done. That was hard for Raven. Then, there was what he'd said about how well she had done with Drkai. Her face coloured slightly as she recalled his words of praise; a rarity from Eeth, to be sure. The mission had taught her a lot if she were honest.

"I do say so," said Drkai, seeing the change in Raven's expression and interpreting her thoughts.

Raven couldn't help it, she cracked a slight smile despite scratching at several stings on her hands and arms. Yeah, she had done okay.

Endal was, at that point, not so sure about that. Eeth was currently teaching him to jump and catch a rope dangling from the ceiling while having his ignited saber in his hand. Apparently, this was good for his coordination. So far, however, it mostly resulted in Endal jumping past the rope, arms flailing, and ungracefully landing on the ground in an attempt not to impale himself on his saber.

"This is impossible!" he complained when this had happened for the fifth time in a row.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. He did not say a word. His right hand did, however, move ever so slightly towards his belt where Endal knew his paddle was stored.

"Alright, alright, I know better than that. It is entirely possible, and I need to change my attitude," said Endal hastily.

The edges of Eeth's mouth quirked slightly. "Quite so," he said. "Focus on the Force. Try to do it with closed eyes. Or would you prefer a blindfold?"

Endal considered the question. "Yes, please," he said. And once blindfolded, he succeeded on his second attempt.

"Well done," said Eeth. "You have made quite a bit of progress lately." Endal knew that coming out of Eeth's mouth, that was extravagant praise, and he could not help but grin.

* * *

"Fifteen, fourteen, thirTEEN, TWELVE!" Raven silently counted, nodding her head at each count until their starship finally came to a standstill. The door was going to open. The door was FINALLY going to open! Ten seconds later, Raven burst from their ship into the hangar and immediately ran to the runway opening, gulping in a lungful of Coruscant's, well, not so fresh air before the hatch could slide shut and seal them inside.

"Oh, thank the Force," she said, sated by the few seconds of mottled sunshine on her face; missions were awesome, but she was beginning to appreciate coming home just as much.

"Come, padawan," said Eeth with a slight smile. "The Council are waiting for us. You and Master Drkai will have a lot to tell them.

"Yes, master," Raven replied by rote.

It wasn't until they had entered the Council's antechamber and were waiting to be announced that Raven started feeling nervous. Firstly, she simply wasn't particularly talented at delivering these reports, despite how much she had practised. Secondly, it just occurred to her that she was the only member of their mission team who was about to stand before the Council without their lightsaber. Her eyes widened in horror, and she sat down so abruptly that the legs of her chair skidded backwards. She looked up at Eeth. "Please," she said quietly, her meaning clear across their bond.

Eeth gave her a stony look in return and folded his arms across his chest. "No," he said. And nothing more.

"Just for the meeting, please?" Raven whispered, desperation clear in her tone. She was only just stopping herself from outright begging. It probably wouldn't help her case, though, and so she refrained for now.

"Padawan, I said no and I meant it," snapped Eeth. "I do not want to hear any more about it."

Endal gave Raven a sympathetic look. This would suck for her, but being paddled in the antechamber to the Council room would probably suck considerably more. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that!

At that moment, the double doors to the Council chamber were opened by an aide. Raven kept her head down and eyes fixed on the floor the entire way, just wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her. It did not. When it came time for Raven to add her input, she reluctantly stepped forward to stand beside Drkai but did not look up as she spoke. Fortunately, and despite Raven's obvious discomfort, nobody asked her about it and she was grateful to slide back behind Eeth out of the spotlight.

"Padawan," Eeth said quietly once they had left the Council chamber. "Learn to accept it. You are neither the first nor the last padawan to enter this chamber without their saber. It has happened before. Even to some of those sitting on the Council today."

Raven closed her eyes and blew out a sigh, and at the same time did her best to release her frustration into the Force. It wasn't easy as walking around the Temple with your lightsaber hanging from your master's belt was not exactly unobtrusive. In fact, it was entirely obtrusive, which was the point, she knew. This was going to be a long week, oh, and one day, Raven thought ruefully. Outwardly, however, she simply inclined her head because in the grand scheme of things that she knew could and did go wrong in their lives, losing her lightsaber to Eeth wasn't really the end of the world.

As they left the turbolift and entered the corridor where they had to part, the four Jedi said goodbye to each other, knowing that they would meet again soon. Who knew? Maybe even for another mission, some day…


End file.
